[tlhIngan Hol] mej tlheD difference

[Will Martin]

English has a much larger vocabulary than Klingon, with lots of very similar-meaning words, sometimes with subtle difference in meaning, and sometimes with no meaningful difference. Poets might choose one over the other simply for the rhythm or the rhyme. Klingon has fewer words with fewer synonyms, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Okrand’s primary focus is on widening the scope of the vocabulary, stretching each word to cover a maximum range of meaning, without intentionally creating synonyms, but then, by accident or intentionally, some synonyms exist. He could easily loose track of whether or not he’s already created a word he needs.

It might be that since {mej} sounds similar to {mev} that {mej} is to stop being here, while since {tlheD} sounds a lot like {tlhuD} that it refers more to the outward motion.

Even if this odd idea were right, it wouldn’t really make the two verbs {mej} and {tlhuD} not be synonyms.

I don’t think there’s a solid difference between the two verbs that all Klingon speakers could agree to. Pick the one that occurs to you first or that feels most right, and 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.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

> On Aug 10, 2019, at 10:59 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know, what's the difference (if any) between {mej} and {tlheD} ?
> 
> I always "felt", {mej} to have a more "final" character, as if "now I leave you".
> 
> And {tlheD} I considered as a "lighter" version, e.g. "now I depart for a vacation".
> 
> But since most likely I'm wrong, if someone could/would enlighten me, then that would be great.
> 
> ~  xbbccbcb
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