[tlhIngan Hol] So sarcophagus you say ? hmm..

[nIqolay Q]

On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 3:26 PM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:

> Initially the law'/law' construction confused me, but finally I remembered
> that instead of the classic law'/puS, there are alternate versions such as
> the law'/law'. So, in this case the meaning obviously is "klingons are as
> varied as the humans". The choice of the double {law'} instead of a double
> {puS} obviously is made to express that both klingons and humans are
> "varied to a great degree". Instead of "varied to a small degree", which
> would be the case if we had a double {puS}.
>

A double {puS} construction doesn't mean "to a small degree", it means the
comparison has negative connotations. {tlhInganpu' Sar puS Humanpu' Sar
puS} would mean "Klingons are as varied as humans (and that's a bad
thing)." Using double {law'} is a more value-neutral comparison.

This messed me up real good until I finally managed to figure it out. It
> must mean "as for one small society someone is usual, as for another small
> society another is usual". Although I still can't understand why you used
> {nughHom} instead of {nugh}.
>

I think it was intended to mean something like a subculture, a group which
shares many of the cultural precepts of a larger {nugh} but has its own
distinct differences from it.


> Isn't here the {law'} on the {latlhpu'} somewhat redundant ? Doesn't the
> {-pu'} inherently mean "many" ? So, why say {latlhpu' law'} instead of just
> {latlhpu'} ?
>

{-pu'} means plural, not many. Two or three is plural, but not many.
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