[1493] in tlhIngan-Hol
tlhInganpu' / tlhInganmey
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Sep 3 10:41:06 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: A.APPLEYARD@fs1.mt.umist.ac.uk
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: 3 Sep 93 11:14:58 GMT
As I wrote previously, I suspect that originally the general plural `-mey`
was used for all nouns, and that:-
The body part plural `-Du'` originally meant "pair", and spread from natural
pairs like eyes and hands to all body parts;
The sentient plural `-pu'` originally meant "the whole group, all that
there are": `tlhInganmey` = "those Klingons, some Klingons" / `tlhInganpu'` =
"the Klingons as a whole, all the Klingons", c.f.:-
Hebrew `Mo'ab` = "the whole nation or army of Moab" / `Mo'abim` = "some
Moabites, those Moabites" as plurals of `Mo'abi` = "Moabite".
Tolkien Sindarin `Orc-hoth` = "all the Orcs" / `Yrch` = "some Orcs".
I suspect that the modern restriction of `tlhInganmey` to "scattered about"
started in (and may still be somewhat restricted to) the armed forces, as a
deliberate language habit by officers of using `-pu` instead of `-mey` as
plural of armed forces personnel to emphasize concertedness of action and
obedience and discipline (since a regiment etc is supposed to do osomething
all together, etc etc), and letting `-mey` get an overtone of disorderlyness
and scatteredness.
