[tlhIngan Hol] Expressing "must"

[kechpaja]

On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 04:58:39PM -0500, SuStel wrote:
> On 11/14/2016 4:41 PM, Lieven wrote:
> >
> > Was it not you who said two days ago that you need to scramble the 
> > english words in your brain to get one idea? I think this is one more. 
> > From my point of view, I think it's okay to say {-nIS} = "must/need".
> 
> But there /is/ a distinction between being required to do something and 
> having a need to do something. It is not at all clear to me that Klingon 
> *-nIS* covers both.

There's definitely a difference, but would Klingons really care about
it? Think about how we speak in English: often we say "I need to get X
done" (or, just as frequently, "you need to get X done") when X is a
legal or social requirement rather than a physical need. In Klingon
culture, where upholding one's honor and fulfilling one's duties is much
more heavily stressed than it is in Western Human cultures, I doubt the
difference would really matter (and if you really needed to express it,
you could use a circumlocution that described the law or custom that
required you to do something). 

-SapIr