[tlhIngan Hol] nughIjchugh vay' matuHnIS'a'?

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Fri Apr 12 06:30:12 PDT 2019


On 4/12/2019 9:01 AM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
> Am 12.04.2019 um 14:41 schrieb De'vID:
>> not qoHpu''e' neH ghIjlu'.
>>
>> The existence of this adage makes me fairly confident that there is no
>> such taboo.
>
> Yes, indeed. Besides, there is a difference between "being scared of
> something" and "being afraid to do something".
>
> For instance, a Klingon may say {mughIj Ha'DIbaHvam} to mention that
> this animal makes im feel uncomfortable for some reason, but he may be
> very brave and touch it anway, so he's not {touching-vIp}. 

He is touching*-**vIp.* The suffix *-vIp* doesn't preclude you 
overcoming your fear and doing the verb anyway.

The existence of the proverb doesn't give me much confidence to conclude 
that there is no such taboo. It just suggests to me that there are 
competing ideals in Klingon society: on the one hand, there is pressure 
not to admit fear; on the other hand, there is a recognition that 
understanding one's own fear is empowering. We have similar pressures in 
our own societies.

The taboo on using *-vIp* with a first-person subject only addresses one 
side of those pressures. I imagine that the same people who avoid using 
first-person *-vIp* would also avoid using *ghIj* to admit their own 
fear. People who espouse the proverb would be less hesitant to use 
first-person *-vIp.*

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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