[tlhIngan Hol] Why not law'wI'pu' ?

[Will Martin]

Okay, during coffee intake (perhaps before enough of it kicked in), a lightening-like idea hit me for using {law’wI’pu’}. Yes, it’s weird:

reH tlhIngan yoH law’, tera’ngan yoH puS. SuvDI’, reH puSwI’pu' jey law’wI’pu’ net Sov.

As further evidence, I suggest that {puSwI’} is the etymological root of an English derogatory term that sounds similar.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On Feb 22, 2019, at 3:40 AM, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> I lost the original to message to quote it, but mayqel said he felt strange using {law'wI'}.
> 
> The reason is that {law'wI'pu'} does not mean "the many" but the "ones who are many". Again: it does not mean "those multiple people who are lots of single persons altogether" but it means "those people of which each single one is many" which makes no sense.
> 
> So, IMHO, {law'wI'} "thing/person which is many" makes no sense at all.
> 
> Unless, maybe, in situations where the Borg queen said "I am the one who is many", but that's a very unusual situation, even in English.
> 
> If I'd use {law'wI'pu'} in a sentence, it sounds like "the manyers" in English.
> 
> ....but this is not English ...
> 
> Still, this is an interesting question that cannot be answered entirely, as Maltz may tell us other things about that. What about {mapuS} or {malaw'}? Isn't that "we are many"?
> 
> Based on this phrase
> {Doq SuvwI'pu'; DoqwI'pu' vIlegh.}
> the following should be acceptable too:
> {law' SuvwI'pu'; law'wI'pu' vIlegh.}
> 
> Okay, now I'm eating my own statement... :-/
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
> http://www.klingonisch.de
> http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/Many
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