[tlhIngan Hol] teH vs {-na'}

mayqel qunen'oS mihkoun at gmail.com
Wed Aug 14 03:26:08 PDT 2019


Recently, charghwI' wrote and I replied:

charghwI':
> don’t expect everyone who reads what
> you’ve written or hears what you’ve said
> to be keenly aware of whatever fine
> shade of meaning that you intended to
> convey by choosing one or the other.
jIH:
> This is a wonderful comment indeed.
> I've noticed, that as the years go by, and
> the more I use klingon, I tend to *feel* certain
> words in a certain way, without though this "perception"
> of mine actually being based on solid Ca'Non.

As it seems, I just noticed one such case..

Yesterday, I wondered how to express "darkness is the real light". So
instinctively I wrote:

{tamghayna' 'oH Hurghchu'ghach'e'}

I used {-na'} because in my mind, I had attributed to it the meaning
"to be real, true" as opposed to "counterfeit". In other words,
somewhere along the way, I started perceiving the {-na'} to be
conveying a meaning opposite to the verb {ngeb}.

Luckily though, yesterday, I had the idea of checking with the tkd.
So, lets remember, the way {-na'} is defined:

tkd:
> {-na'} <definite>
> This is the counterpart of {-Hey.} It indicates that there is no
> doubt in the speaker's mind as to the accuracy of his or her
> choice of words. Once the Klingon officer referred to above is
> sure that the object the scanner has found is a vessel, he might
> report the presence of {Dujna'} <a definite vessel, undoubtedly a
> vessel.>

So, after reading the relevant tkd part, I understood that by saying
{tamghayna' 'oH Hurghchu'ghach'e'}, I'm not actually saying "perfect
darkness is the true light" (true as opposed to fake/counterfeit).

By saying {tamghayna' 'oH Hurghchu'ghach'e'}, i'm actually saying
"perfect darkness is the definite light" as in "perfect darkness is
surely the light".

Perhaps there doesn't seem to be any significant difference between
these two translations..

Or is there ?

Lets read:

"perfect darkness is the true light"
"perfect darkness is the definite light"

But if I say "perfect darkness is the definite true light", then
perhaps a difference starts to show.

Saying "perfect darkness is the definite true light", means that
perhaps there are many kinds of light which can be considered "true",
but only one is actually the true one, while the rest only appear as
being true.

So, I think, that by saying {tamghayna'} i'm not expressing the
concept of "true light" (as opposed to counterfeit). I'm rather
expressing that "it is definitely a light", but a light which may be
of the counterfeit variety.

So, to say that "perfect darkness is the true light" (as opposed to
the counterfeit kinds of light), perhaps I should write:

{tamghay teH 'oH Hurghchu'ghach'e'}

Anyways, in no way am I sure that my analysis is correct, so any
thoughts and comments are mostly welcomed.

~ hjkhkjkhhjk



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