[85049] in tlhIngan-Hol
RE: Help with a project
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Terrence Donnelly)
Wed Sep 10 11:24:45 2008
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:22:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terrence Donnelly <terrence.donnelly@sbcglobal.net>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
In-Reply-To: <C305E6BD33E2654DAE1F8F403247B6A67EF24D0722@EVS02.ad.uchicago.edu>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
--- On Wed, 9/10/08, Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu> wrote:
> Voragh:
> >> And let's not forget {chu'} "play (a
> musical instrument)":
> >> (...) Thus {Supghew chu'wI'} could be a
> "fiddle player".
>
> ter'eS:
> > I just think {chu'} is kind of over-used.
>
> It is, but it often is the right word nevertheless.
>
> "Play" in English is also used fairly widely and
> in many different idioms -- as is *tocar* in Spanish,
> *igrat'* in Russian, *shpiln* in Yiddish, *spielen* in
> German (IIRC), etc. (It must be something about having a
> general or generic verb vs. specific verbs for particular
> types of playing/instruments.)
Well, the original play uses the word "fiddler", which is derived from one of the weirdest music-related words in English. "To fiddle" refers to all the actions involved in playing a single type of instrument, and pretty much only to that (you can fiddle with your buttons, but it's not the same thing at all). Talk about specific! I can't think of another word like it, except "to drum", which describes a much simpler action and one extendable to lots of non-musical settings.
>
> > Besides, what if someone thought the play was
> "The Newbie on the Roof?"
>
> There'll be many Klingon speakers in the audience,
> then? <g>
>
One can only hope!
> --
> Voragh
-- ter'eS
