[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tey'be'

[qov at kli.org]

You don't NEED to use further context to distinguish what kind of tey'be'
you are thinking of whenever you use the word, any more than you need to use
further context in English to distinguish whether every completed action was
deliberate or not, or what sort of honour you mean.  Indeed if you always do
distinguish, you're going to sound oddly foreign. You only need to use
further context if it is important to you that your listener know which sort
of tey'be' you mean.  "Female relative, a couple steps removed" may be
enough. In a large family you may have been babysat by your cousin and then
later babysit your own aunt.

A friend once pointed out a man crossing a parking lot as, "my father's
older brother."  I looked at the uncle and smiled to myself, and later asked
to confirm.  My fluently bilingual friend's native language has separate
words for father's younger brother, father's older brother, and mother's
sister's husband.  A monolingual English speaker would almost certainly have
pointed out someone seen briefly as simply "my uncle," but in my friend's
head these were different categories so she added the extra specificity.
I've found that Russians are slightly irritated that English speakers call
electric buses and buses with internal combustion engines both "bus" and
that we collapse all educational institutions to "school."  It's confusing
that we don't use separate words.

It's common for a language to have extended complex kinship terms, and to
draw different distinctions.  Why does a Klingon have the same word for an
aunt as a cousin?  Why do we have the same word for an older brother as a
younger one? It mattered culturally at the time the language developed.

- Qov

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mayql qunenoS [mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com]
> Sent: March 7, 2016 3:05
> To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tey'be'
> 
> QISta':
> > megh vut tey'be'wI' 'e' nID 'ach SIjwI' SamlaHbe'.
> > My cousin tried to prepare lunch, but couldn't find a knife.
> 
> As SuStel pointed out, whenever we use the word {tey'be'} we need to use
> further context as well, in order to specify as to the what kind of
tey'be' we
> are referring to. Other that that, I think that you should move the
{tey'be'wI'}
> from it's current positition to place it after the {nID} :
> 
> megh vut 'e' nID tey'be'wI' 'ach SIjwI' SamlaHbe'.
> 
> my tey'be' attempted it (what did he attempt ?) (and now comes the part
> after the 'e'} : that he cook lunch ; here the first part of the sentence
is
> concluded and now follows the : ..however he wasn't able to locate the
> knife.
> 
> I hope you don't mind me writing these comments.. If you do however
> please do tell me !
> 
> mayqel mop mIv je Hurgh qunnoq HoD
> 
> On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 12:46 PM, mayql qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > jIH:
> >> tey'be'wI' SoHmo' bInayDI' jISaH.
> >> because you are my niece, when you marry I will be present.
> > SuStel:
> >> Although in English you can choose between "cousin" and "niece," in
> >> Klingon you're just saying {teybe'}, so you're not making that
distinction.
> >
> > yes you're right.. only now I realized this. I should have made some
> > reference to other relatives as well, in order to specify as to the
> > kind of {tey'be'} I was referring to.
> >
> > jIH:
> >> 'aj tey'be' SoHmo' qaHoHbe' 'e' DaHar. tagha'Ha' 'aj vIHoH, ghIq
> >> qaHoH je don't believe that because you are the admiral's cousin I
> >> will not kill you. first I will kill the admiral, then I will kill you
too.
> > SuStel :
> >> In {paq'batlh} we see {wa'DIch} being used as this kind of "first"
> >
> > thank you for showing me this ; actually I had thought of using the
> > {wa'DIch} to express the <first>, however I wasn't sure that it could
> > be used in this way. luckily now I found out.
> >
> > mayqel mIv mop je Hurgh qunnoq
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 4:47 AM, chransberry at gmail.com
> > <chransberry at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Two birds with one stone (today's and yesterday's words):
> >>
> >> megh vut tey'be'wI' 'e' nID 'ach SIjwI' SamlaHbe'.
> >> My cousin tried to prepare lunch, but couldn't find a knife.
> >>
> >> An odd sentence perhaps...
> >>
> >> -QISta'
> >>
> >> Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original message-----
> >>
> >> From: qurgh lungqIj <qurgh at wizage.net>
> >> To: "tlhingan-hol at kli.org" <tlhingan-hol at kli.org>
> >> Sent: Sun, Mar 6, 2016 15:01:41 GMT+00:00
> >> Subject: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tey'be'
> >>
> >> Klingon Word of the Day for Sunday, March 06, 2016
> >>
> >> Klingon word: tey'be'
> >> Part of speech: noun
> >> Definition: female cousin (mother's sister's child or father's
> >> brother's child), niece (man's brother's daughter
> >> Source: HQ:v9n3p8
> >>
> >>
> >> This Klingon Word of the Day is brought to you by qurgh
> (qurgh at wizage.net).
> >>
> >>
> >>
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