[86186] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Questions with law'/puS
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Doq)
Sun Jul 5 11:37:30 2009
From: Doq <doq@embarqmail.com>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
In-Reply-To: <f60fe000907022012s77a0dd50pc05b9df81ccc1022@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 11:34:52 -0400
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
There was once a wonderful exchange between two established Klingon
speakers where one asked if it were true (and he suspected that it
was) that speaking Klingon forced you to be rude. The other responded
that it was not true; that instead speaking Terran forced you to be
vague, wittering and indecisive.
Saying "X is better than Y, right?" is exactly the same thing as
saying, "Is X better than Y?", except that the latter version avoids
committing to a proposal of which item the speaker believes is better.
There is no champion in the weaker version of the question. In the
stronger version, there is a champion and a challenger, which is far
more related to Klingon culture than the version you seem to prefer.
I don't see it as something "missing" from Klingon. I see it as an
alignment between culture and language. Of all impressive things about
the Klingon language, the thing that impresses me most is the
alignment of culture and language for this fictional race. It is a
jewel among fictional languages.
Tolkien can talk about Ent language and how the slowness of speech
fits the slowness of trees, but Okrand actually did it, rather than
simply describe it.
Doq
On Jul 2, 2009, at 11:12 PM, Mark J. Reed wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:04 PM, Doq<doq@embarqmail.com> wrote:
>> jIH val law' SoH val puS, qar'a'?
>
> I thought about it, and it'll do in a pinch, but it's not quite what
> I'm looking for. You appear to be stating ahead of time a belief that
> the answer to the question is yes.
>
> "X is better than Y, right?"
>
> I was looking for a more neutral
>
> "Is X better than Y?"
>
> But I'm assuming we don't actually have a way to say that. Do'Ha'.
>
>> Doq
>>
>> On Jul 2, 2009, at 10:53 PM, Mark J. Reed wrote:
>>
>>> Do we know how to turn a law'/puS statement into a yes/no question,
>>> e.g. "is X more Y than Z?"
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mark J. Reed <markjreed@gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Mark J. Reed <markjreed@gmail.com>
>
>
>
