[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: yItlhHa'

[Felix Malmenbeck]

> The use of the suffix {-Ha'} does not imly that the situation or the
> action was different before. It's just the opposite meaning.

While there are some canonical examples that may suggest this to be the case (words like {jaQHa'} come to mind), the original description in TKD suggests that it requires either an undoing of a previous state/action, or that something is done wrongly:

"This negative suffix implies not merely that something is not done (as does -be'), but that there is a change of state: something that was previously done is now undone. For convenience, it will here be translated as "undo", but it is closer to the English prefixes mis-, de-, dis- (as in "misunderstand", "demystify", "disentangle"). It is also used if somethign is done wrongly. Unlie -be', -Ha' can be used in imperatives."

TKD also uses the example sentence Do'Ha', and comments "The use of -Ha' in this sentence suggests a turn of luck from good to bad."

Consider also Marc Okrand's comments on the words {parHa'}, and the distinction between {QuchHa'} and {'IQ}:

http://klingonska.org/canon/1998-03-02a-news.txt

He has also suggested that {jotlhHa'} doesn't just mean "put up", but rather "put back up".

http://klingonska.org/canon/1997-04-07-email.txt

... and the difference between {ghungbe'} and {ghungHa'}:

http://klingonska.org/canon/2011-11-15b-email.txt

Then there are his comments in KGT about {'eyHa'}, {tlhorghHa'} and {jejHa']}:

"All food is considered to be good in its natural state; it takes the intervention of a "cook" to ruin it. Thus, the word 'eyHa', used to describe food that is edible but is not particularly tasty, means something like "undelicious", implying that someone caused it to cease being delicious."

"To the Klingon palate, the best food tasts tlhorgh ("pungent"; though some non-Klingons may prefer to translate the word as "rank" or "gamy"). The opposite of tlhorgh is tlhorghHa', conventionally translated as "bland" but literally meaning unpungent," the implication being that the natural punch has somehow been taken out of the food as a result of how it was prepared. The same ideas are often expressed idiomatically. When talking about the quality of a dish, one may say jej pach ("The claw is sharp"; that is, the food is pungent) or jejHa' pach ("The claw is dull"; in orther words, the food is bland, where jejHa' ["dull"] really means something like "de-sharpened").

//loghaD

________________________________________
From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org> on behalf of Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de>
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2019 17:49
To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org
Subject: Re: [tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: yItlhHa'

Am 18.03.2019 um 17:33 schrieb nIqolay Q:
> I wonder about the use of {-Ha'} here, since it's possible to be lenient
> or indulgent without having been strict first.

The use of the suffix {-Ha'} does not imly that the situation or the
action was different before. It's just the opposite meaning.

> Could the use of the
> {-Ha'} imply that, to the Klingon mindset, everyone is strict by
> default, and leniency is an undoing of that state?

No, it just means what it says. yItlhHa' is the opposite of yItlh.

Does the English word "disobey" mean that everyone obeys by default?

--
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.klingonisch.de
http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/TheLittlePrince
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