[85390] in tlhIngan-Hol
RE: The language of the spirit
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Boozer)
Mon Apr 27 09:52:29 2009
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
To: "'tlhingan-hol@kli.org'" <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:50:07 -0500
In-Reply-To: <BAY106-W40335088FEDC9C1848428CB6720@phx.gbl>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
be''etlh:
>I seem to recall a note somewhere that for qa' (spirit) one uses the
>possessives and pluralizers indicating a language user.
ghe'torvo' narghDI' qa'pu'
when spirits escape from Gre'thor (KGT 117)
KGT 117: Note that the word for "spirit", {qa'}, takes the plural suffix {-pu'}, which is used for beings capable of using language. Spirits do speak.
st.k 7/19/99: the plural of {Qun} ["god, supernatural being"] is {Qunpu'} since they are or were presumably capable of using language, which is what the plural suffix {-pu'} implies ... {Qunpu'} are distinct from {qa'pu'} "spirits" (such as the spirits of the dishonored dead which reside at Gre'thor).
> I assume that
>yab (mind, brain) refers more to the physical organ than it does to the
>English nonphysical concept of mind, and therefore would not only not use
>the language suffixes, but would never be used to refer to any sort of
>sense of self as the English word can.
Our only example of {yab} refers to organs (plural):
targhlIj yab tIn law' no'lI' Hoch yabDu' tIn puS
Your targ has a bigger brain than all your ancestors put together! PK
Whether {yab} meaning "mind, intellect" takes a plural suffix is unknown but I don't see why not -- at least under certain circumstances, e.g. the Providers (TOS "The Gamesters of Triskelion"). {wej yabDu'} refering to the three disembodied brains housed in a machine, while {wej yabpu'} might refer to them as three evolved and separate intellects, each certainly "capable of using language".
N.B. there is another word for "brain (organ)", particularly as a food item. Okrand comments:
KGT 225, 236: another word, {yab}, also means "brain" as an organ, but in addition it means "mind, intellect" and is not used in reference to food" (KGT 225, 236)
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons
