[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: QuQ

[lojmIttI'wI'nuv]

There’s a joke pointing out the different meanings of “only” in English, and the way that word placement is so flexible and alters meaning.

Start with the sentence:

I hit the baby in the head.

Now, add the word “only” in each location it could be placed. There are a couple of redundant meanings, but most of them are unique:

Only I hit the baby in the head. (Nobody did it but me.)

I only hit the baby in the head. (Don’t make a fuss over it. It’s not that big of a deal.)

I hit only the baby in the head. (I didn’t hit anybody else in the head.)

I hit the only baby in the head. (There wasn’t more than one baby.)

I hit the baby only in the head. (I didn’t hit the baby anywhere else.)

I hit the baby in only the head. (This is the strange one, hard to parse. Maybe I hit it out everywhere else?)

I hit the baby in the only head. (Nothing in the room had a head, except the baby, and it only had one of them.)

I hit the baby in the head only. (I didn’t hit the baby anywhere else.)

So, don’t feel too bad about not completely understanding “only” as a person for whom English is not a primary language.

This joke is not NEARLY as funny in Klingon...

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Mar 22, 2016, at 4:31 AM, mayql qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> jIH :
>> QuQchaj boQaw'DI' neH, bochungHa'moHlaH.
>> only when you destroy their engine, will you be able to make them decelerate.
> SuStel :
>> {neH} after a verb means "merely," not "only."
> 
> This will sound strange, but this happened because just now I realized
> that I don't quite understand the difference between the english words
> "merely" and "only". I just realized that in my mind they are
> interchangeable, perhaps because in greek we use the same word for
> both of them. This is a matter similar to war/warfare which again in
> my mind are interchangeable, because in greek we use the same word for
> both. So, until I learn the klingon vocabulary, so as to think in
> klingon, I guess I must develop the habit of at least thinking in
> english..
> 

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