[87001] in tlhIngan-Hol
RE: Question about -wI'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Boozer)
Mon Nov 23 16:48:10 2009
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
To: "'tlhingan-hol@kli.org'" <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:46:52 -0600
In-Reply-To: <4B0AFC62.8080607@trimboli.name>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Christopher Doty wrote:
>> Can -wI' go on nouns? Or does this mean that, as with many Klingon
>> words, the noun Hergh is identical to a verb with roughly the same
>> meaning, "administer medicine," and the verb Hergh is simply missing
>> from the dictionary?
SuStel:
>No, {-wI'} is only a verb suffix. There are some complex nouns that
>*look* like they're simple nouns plus {-wI'}, but we can't pull them
>apart and generalize new words or rules from them; we have to suppose
>that they're leftovers from Old Klingon, or some such, and just treat
>them as distinct complex nouns. See also TKD 3.2.2.
{HerghwI'} may also be a contraction of the longer {Hergh QaywI'} "pneumatic hypo" or "thing which transfers medicine" (HQ 1.3:9). Perhaps this is medical slang for a commonly used device which one may need to ask for quickly.
We're told in KCD that {HoHwI'} is also the short form for another device, the {romuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'} or Romulan hunter-killer probe. It's not an exact parallel, of course since we do have the verb {HoH} "kill", but this is another occasion where one needs a quick warning.
{HerghwI'} may well be derived from an unknown or obsolete verb *{Hergh} ("medicate"?), but as Sustel warns, we have no way of knowing at the moment.
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons
