[tlhIngan Hol] tejpu'

[De'vID]

On Mon, 29 Jul 2019 at 05:35, Chris O'Regan <christopher.oregan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi everyone
>
> This is my first message to the list, how exciting.
>
> I am a bit unsure about {DI'ruj tej} being used at all because as far as I
> understand it {tej} is 'scientist' whereas metaphysics is strictly speaking
> not a science at all, it's a branch of philosophy, like ethics. At least
> this is true of the 'western' Terran tradition.
>
> Someone who engages is metaphysics is a metaphysician - I have never heard
> the term 'metaphysicist' used in English before. I agree their work is
> different to a physicist's but it's also very different to a physcician's
> :). The English language term 'metaphysician' shouldn't (properly) conjure
> up the idea of someone who does scientific experiments, although people
> (like the Beatles) commonly get that wrong due to the confusing history of
> the English-language term ('physics' was originally in Aristotle's day
> something that philosophers did rather than scientists, or more accurately
> there was no real categorical distinction between 'science' and
> 'philosophy' as we now understand them in the Western tradition).
>
> Of course, it's quite possible that the Klingon term *does* describe
> someone whose work can be appropriately categorised with our term,
> 'science' - maybe it's very advanced! But maybe it's also true that {QeD}
> can mean something broader than the narrow definition of the English term
> 'science' - 'study' or 'knowledge' or something like that. I am a humble
> beginner and I am sure others know more than me about this.
>

It seems that the Klingon word {QeD} might be broader than just what we'd
term "science". For example, we consider mathematics to be related to
science but not itself a science (as it deals with abstract concepts rather
than concrete things we can point to in reality), though to Klingons it's
{mI'QeD}. Metaphysics is similar to mathematics in that way. But also, at
the current point in Earth history, we've reached a state in our physics
understanding where some physics hypotheses or theories are untestable,
either practically (e.g., would require an accelerator the size of a
planet) or even in principle. Who knows what Klingon physics and
metaphysics look like or how they're related in the 23rd or 24th century?

Some choices in how we divide things in our mental map of the world are
basically arbitrary and down to accidents of history (which, to Klingons,
is {qunQeD}). For example, why is "dentistry" a separate thing from
"medicine" in many parts of the world? (There are separate "medical
schools", where they don't teach dentistry but do teach medicine of the
nose, ear, throat, and eyes; and "dentistry schools" which don't cover
anything outside of the mouth. Medical and dental insurance are usually
handled separately.) Klingons have a different history than we do, so it's
not surprising that the Klingon language would draw divisions differently
than English.


> As for mu'mey chu' - has anyone considered that {rejghun} could resemble
> the Australian rhyming slang term - 'Reg Grundies' - to mean 'undies'?
>

maj. ghaytan bIlugh.

-- 
De'vID
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