[tlhIngan Hol] difference between {ta'} and {voDleH}

[De'vID]

On Wed, 3 Jul 2019 at 13:07, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 10:44 AM mayqel qunen'oS
> >  > I just *feel* as a more "formal" word the {voDleH} compared to the
> > {ta'}, but of course this is just a "feeling".
> I know it's based on nothing and just my feeling:
>
> I think that due to its length, {voDleH} sounds a lot more "majestic",
> more formal. The word {ta'} sounds like an everyday speech word, that is
> problably used m ore often in daily speech.
>

I wonder if {voDleH} is used just in formal situations, or to avoid
ambiguity (with the noun meaning "accomplishment" or the verb suffix).


> All of this is just theory of course. I probably feel the same in
> English, where "King" sounds less important to me than "The Emperor".
>

But a king and an emperor are actually different things. The reason "king"
sounds less important than "emperor" is because it is. The rulers of
empires are emperors (empresses), and the rulers of kingdoms are kings
(queens). Empires are typically much larger than kingdoms (compare the
British Empire and the United Kingdom).

See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial,_royal_and_noble_ranks

Since I liked the sound and the uniqueness of the word, I translated
> "King" with {voDleH} in "The Little Prince".
>

Without knowing more about Klingon political history or the etymology of
{ta'} and {voDleH}, that's seems like a reasonable choice.

-- 
De'vID
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