[1598] in tlhIngan-Hol
Plurals
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Oct 5 16:24:47 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com>
From: laibow@brick.purchase.edu (The Songbringer -- Marnen to the common fol
k)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 16:18:48 EDT
Two conundrums, both centering around the word >ghu<:
1. What is the plural of >ghu<? At first blush, one would think >ghumey<.
However, many Terran babies can speak to some degree, and to my knowledge there
is no material about Klingons' verbal development, so >ghupu'< is possible.
Also, "using language" is never defined: perhaps it means _understanding_
language rather than _speaking_ it, in which case >ghupu'< suddenly becomes
more plausible...
2 (somewhat harder). What is the plural of >boghbe'bogh ghu< (making a stab at
"fetus")? >boghbe'bogh ghumey< sounds plausible, since fetuses almost certainly
cannot use language in any sense of the phrase, but can they be considered as
separate organisms? What about >boghbe'bogh ghuDu'<? (!) Does this depend on
the stage of pregnancy? (Why do I have a feeling the answers to this are going
to roughly correspond with people's views on abortion (yatlhbe'choHmoHghach) ?
;> )
Qapla' Qichqemwi'vo'.
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