[tlhIngan Hol] Disturbing irregularities

[Alan Anderson]

On Thu, Jun 23, 2016 at 3:05 PM, MorphemeAddict <lytlesw at gmail.com> wrote:
> There's a logical distinction here, too, that English rarely makes outside
> of "Alice in Wonderland", namely that a person isn't his name. Lojban
> requires this distinction, but elsewhere it's rare. So saying "I am [name]"
> ([pong] jIH) is kind of odd, even if it's the normal way of saying what
> one's name is.

Early in my study of Klingon, I had the same objection. I preferred to
interpret the verbal use of the pronoun {'oH} as "is a" or "is the",
more of a categorizer than an indication of equality. I argued my
point sincerely. I suggested that the correct way to identify oneself
would be to say {pongwIj 'oH [pong]'e'}, and I fully intended to say
it that way every time the opportunity occurred.

And then I went to my first qep'a' and met other Klingonists. What was
the VERY FIRST THING that came out of my mouth when I introduced
myself?  {ghunchu'wIy jIH}. [I hadn't quite had enough pronunciation
practice.] It's just the natural way to do it, and it makes perfect
sense if you consider that many people can have the same name. "I am a
[name]." It works exactly like {tlhIngan jIH}.

-- ghunchu'wI'