[tlhIngan Hol] When we return from the battlefield, who will we be then ?

André Müller esperantist at gmail.com
Wed Jun 29 00:53:01 PDT 2016


2016-06-29 9:22 GMT+02:00 mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com>:

> ghunchu'wI':
>

[snip]


> I was trying to avoid using the SAO, because I feel it is the only
> thing in klingon which is not direct.
>
> Unlike in english, where we say : "we believe that..", in klingon one
> must first make a statement, then take a coffee break, then say the
> {'e'} - without the reader/listener - knowing that it will actually
> come, and only then continue with the rest of the SAO.
>
>
On the contrary. I believe that this way of phrasing it is especially
direct. Saying that you "believe" (or think, hope etc.) something first
isn't direct either, it's a sort of metalinguistic device putting your
proposition into context. I think it's very direct to first say the
statement and then add how sure you are about it. And it goes well together
with the general OVS word order.
Also, a lot of natural languages do it just like that: saying the
statement/quotation and then adding "I say/think/hope" etc.
I think making 2 sentences out of 1 very short one might strike Klingons as
wasting time or something...

But I usually don't think of Klingon philosophy when writing or saying
something in the language. I don't believe that a language's structure
reflects the philosophy of its speakers (like the old myths about German
being very precise, Chinese being very philosophical, French being full of
emotions, Russian or Arabic being harsh, etc.).

- André
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