[tlhIngan Hol] The crucible

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Mon Aug 8 06:19:26 PDT 2016


On 8/8/2016 6:30 AM, De'vID wrote:
> On 8 August 2016 at 11:14, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ghunchu'wI':
>>> "This one" doesn't make much sense in Klingon with the number {wa'},
>>> especially when what "one" is counting hasn't been stated, and I can't
>>> figure out what "day of this one" would mean.
>> I can't understand why {wa'vam} doesn't make sense.
> The word "one" in English has multiple meanings, only one of which
> applies to the Klingon {wa'}.
>
> If I'm in a store and the Klingon storekeeper demands to know which of
> several similar items I want, I point and say {Dochvam}, not
> *{wa'vam}. In a police line-up, when I'm asked to identify the
> perpetrator, I point and say {nuvvetlh}, not *{wa'vetlh}. In English,
> "one" acts like a pronoun referring to a thing or person previously
> mentioned. It doesn't have this function in Klingon.

I wouldn't be too quick to say this. TKD 5.2:

    Numbers are used as nouns. As such, they may stand alone as subjects
    or objects or they may modify another noun.

    *mulegh cha'* /Two (of them) see me./ (*mulegh* /they see
    me,**/*cha'* /two/)

    *wa' yIHoH* /Kill one (of them)!/ (*wa'* /one,/ *yIHoH* /kill him/her!/)

Now, the important thing here is that the examples demonstrate using 
numbers in a /partitive/ sense. That is, you're pointing out a certain 
number out of a whole. If this is the only way numbers can be used as 
nouns, then you can't use the **wa'vam* and **wa'vetlh *examples above. 
But the text doesn't make it explicit that this is the only way to use 
numbers as nouns.

That said, I agree that mayqel's use of **wa'vam* is odd, and probably 
doesn't work.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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