[Tlhingan-hol] Qagh vIHechbogh [was: Qaghmo' tIn mIS]

[Felix Malmenbeck]

So, many of you have probably seen my story Qaghmo' tIn mIS. I never actually intended to make a game out of it...  ...but I'm actually very much enjoying it, and it seems I'm not the only one, so I don't want to spoil it. However, for the record, I've recorded my original intention below (DaHjaj vIt vIqon. wa'leS chaq maHegh.).

It's worth noting that I intended this to be a silly play on words, not some revolutionarily clever riddle, so to those who've gotten their expectations up...
jIQoS :P


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So, I was sitting in a café translating "I wanna dance with somebody (who loves me)" by the late and great Whitney Houston, and I found myself playing a lot with words like nIteb[Ha'], tay', ghom, muv, tlhej and je.
I was drinking my coffee black, qa'vIn nIm je vIparmo'.
...well, actually, I figured, that's not a formally true statement, now is it? I DO like coffee, and I DO like milk, and in fact sometimes I'll pour myself a glass of milk and drink it between sips of coffee, so qa'vIn nIm je vIparHa'law'.

I started wondering about what the word «je» really means. I reasoned that since Klingon is meant to resemble a natyral language, and judging from my experience with it, it resembles English and Swedish in that the word «je» can either imply togetherness or it cannot.
So, how does one tell if qa'vIn nIm je means "coffee with milk" or "coffee and milk, separately".

meqwIj: Context. Be it situational, cultural, logical or something else, context is the key.
It struck me then that because Klingons don't normally pour milk in their coffee (though some use seasoning or spirits), they'd be likely to interpret «qa'vIn nIm je» as «qa'vIn mob nIm mob je».
Humans, on the other hand, are well-used to the concept of coffee with milk, and we're used to asking one another if we want milk with our coffee, so for us it's natural to assume that "coffee and milk" means "coffee containing milk", which a typical Klingon who's unfamiliar with tera'ngan tIgh would need to be specified as «nIm ngaSbogh qa'vIn'e'», «tay'bogh qa'vIn nIm je», «qa'vIn nIm je luDuDlu'bogh» or the like.

So, because the Human said something ambiguous, and the two resolved the ambiguity through different cultural perspectives, the Klingon ended up getting a drink he could not allow to go unpunished: Coffee containing milk!

So, Qov actually got it "right" with qIDHey loS, but she and others have also come up with superior reasoning :P


Now, to the discussion I originally intended to set up: Do you agree that my reasoning about «je» is - in principle, at least, if not in this particular situation - correct?

SKI: Humans are from Venus; Klingons are from Finland.