[tlhIngan Hol] Two negations

[Philip Newton]

On 1 January 2018 at 13:46, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just realized something..
>
> In english you say "I didn't do anything"
> In greek we say "I didn't do nothing"
> In english you say "I don't know anything"
> In greek we say "I don't know nothing"
> In english you say "I don't go anywhere"
> In greek we say "I don't go nowhere"

I'm not sure whether that's true.

Compare:

Μήπως ξέρει κανείς εδώ αγγλικά; "Does anyone here know English?"
Όχι, κανείς εδώ δεν ξέρει αγγλικά. "No, nobody (= not anyone) here
knows English."

Words such as κανείς only receive their meaning "nobody" in a negative
context, rather similar to how "anyone, anything" etc. only turn into
"nobody, nothing" in a negative context.

So I think that translating κανείς δεν ξέρει into "nobody doesn't
know" is misleading.

But the main question was about Klingon; sorry for the digression.

Ph.