[Tlhingan-hol] More new words from Maltz

[Qov]

Hey, the informant is a gullible gunner, not a topologist, not a 
mathematician, not a biologist (I'm convinced that if he knew the 
distinction between a vein and an artery, that Marc just didn't think 
to quiz him on whether an 'aD spurts or leaks blood when you cut it) 
and not a linguist. matlh has no idea what really makes a qung a qung 
and a QemjIq a QemjIq. He just knows them when he sees them. He's 
probably given us a smattering of vulgar misinformation, embedding 
shibboleths in any would-be Federation-trained spies. Much of what we 
say is going to be wrong register, wrong word, unknown exception and 
the like, but we can get it done.

I remember a young doctor in Leningrad telling me that, "In this 
kladbishche lie the cadavers of many important persons."

Kladbishche is cemetary. He didn't know the word in English, but knew 
I knew the Russian because I had just used it. We were speaking each 
other's language for the practice. He knew through his studies the 
specific English word for "dead human body." He had no idea that it 
was restricted to the context of medical dissection. I mean who would 
guess that we had a word that specialized? It's still not as cool a 
word as the English one meaning "to remove dead flesh from living" 
but we still have cool words.

Sure, try to pin down meanings, try to avoid using words where we're 
told they don't fit. Don't use words in a way that makes Klingon 
English, but don't hurt yourself trying to avoid embarrassing 
situations. Case in point from the same trip to Russia: I knew a 
Russian word denoting "male  roommate."  I knew a suffix useful for 
converting words denoting males to the female form. I boldly asked 
the desk clerk if my lesbian lover was in the room. One has no way of 
knowing these things. Speak boldly and keep your betleH sharp.

:-)

- Qov

At 08:32 31/01/2012, you wrote:
>Very true. However, I suspect the comment about QemjIqmey being 
>fillable and qungmey not was a bit of a misdtatement; after all, one 
>can fill most small qungmey with a bit of lam Dogh.
>
>I suspect the distinction is about one of two things:
>
>1) Topology: Depressions(holes with "dead ends")  are QemjIqmey, 
>true holes are qungmey.
>2) The depth of the material: Much like the way 'ab refers to 
>"longish, skinnyish things", perhaps qungmey refer to punctures in 
>"membranish, sheetlike things"; things with depths that are small 
>compared to width and length.
>
>2) strikes me as being the more natural distinction to make, 
>alrhough I personally prefer 1).
>Neither 1) nor 2) satisfies Okrand's non-fillability criterion, however.
>
>________________________________________
>From: Terrence Donnelly [terrence.donnelly at sbcglobal.net]
>Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 16:34
>To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org
>Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] More new words from Maltz
>
>You're probably right in general, but I would point out that you can 
>easily "fill" the mouth of a bottle by putting a cork or other 
>stopper in it (I believe we have seen many bottles on Star Trek that 
>were closed with stoppers).
>
>-- ter'eS
>
>--- On Tue, 1/31/12, Lieven Litaer <lieven.litaer at web.de> wrote:
>
>From: Lieven Litaer <lieven.litaer at web.de>
>Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] More new words from Maltz
>To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org
>Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 6:48 AM
>
>ter'eS wrote:
>How about QemjIq as the mouth of a bottle? Topologically it's not 
>much different from the soundhole of a musical instrument with a soundbox.
>
>I think of the mouth of a bottle more like a {qung}, you can put 
>your finger through it and you cannot fill it. If you fill it, it's 
>the bottle you fill, not its mouth.
>Nevertheless, I'm sure Klingons have their own word for that, or 
>call it like you did the "mouth" of the bottle. It doesn't sound 
>correct to say "There's a hole in the bottle." In that case it's broken :-)
>
>By the way, I'm pretty sure you can {vegh} a {qung}, as long as it's 
>large enough.
>
>Lieven.
>
>
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