tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 12 15:00:16 2006
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Re: mangpu' or negh?
Shane:
> >>in that case, we'd be implying old age with ('a') which is something which
> >>is insulting to a girl...
ngabwI':
> >Not necessarily. {'a'} covers a whole range of concepts, not just age or
> >weight.
Voragh:
>This suffix indicates that what the noun refers to is bigger,
>more important, or more powerful than it would be without the
>suffix. (TKD 21)
>
> {be'} "female, woman" vs. {be'Hom} "girl"
> {loD} "male, man" vs. {loDHom} "boy"
>
>Just to restate ngabwI's point... The progression could be size or
>importance or strength, not necessarily age - or all four at once. We just
>don't know.
>
>For that matter the forms *{be''a'} and *{loD'a'} may not even exist - or
>may no longer exist - in the "modern" language. As is true with Earth
>languages, native speakers may not necessarily use all possible suffixes
>with all available nouns however tempting these theoretical forms are to
>foreigners learning the language.
Shane:
> >>If they are not used anymore, dosnt' mean they're not understood...
My point was that not being native speakers, we can't predict what native
speakers would understand them as. If anything. Without context I would
probably understand *{be''a'} and *{loD'a'} as "giant" and
"giantess". Klingons might well consider these neologisms as gibberish,
saying {nuqjatlh?}
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons