[87783] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Honoured
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Trimboli)
Wed Feb 3 12:56:32 2010
Date: Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:47:08 -0500
From: David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name>
In-reply-to: <20100203181607.59567cqa556sxv0o@letter.sics.se>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
On 2/3/2010 12:16 PM, kff@sics.se wrote:
> So, this brings us into the nuances of Klingon politeness. What I
> really had in mind when I wrote was something along the lines of:
>
> "You experienced Klingon veteran has made an effort to help us newbies
> improve our Klingon, in which case the honorable thing to do is for us
> to make the effort to complete the assignment."
>
> So my emphasis was on the very good thing that Quvar did, rather than
> on Quvar's high personal honor (which I do not doubt). From the
> examples it seems that {-neS} is more coupled to the social status of
> the person you interact with, than the act they did. So it seems that
> {QInlIj vIHevmo' jIquv} is the best expression. On the other hand,
> maybe that is insufficiently polite and {QInlIj vIHevneS} is more
> appropriate.
>
> Finally, I seems to me that {batlh QInlIj vIHev} would be even less
> polite; I could say that if I was Quvar's equal, for instance.
>
> Are my musings correct?
Look at it this way: you'll only use {-neS} in instances where you'd
call someone "sir" as part of military[ish] protocol, and only when you
want to make it clear that you're being particularly polite. Use of
{-neS} will be noticed by all.
The two sentences, {QInlIj vIHevmo' jIquv} and {QInlIj vIHevneS}, say
two very different things. The first talks about how your honor is
improved because of someone's message. Its context is ordinary. The
second is a very polite and subordinate way of saying you got your
superior's message.
--
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/
