[tlhIngan Hol] unable to use the upper case letter to specify by not specifying

RE Andeen eric.andeen at outlook.com
Tue Aug 11 10:17:04 PDT 2020


On 8/11/2020 10:59 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> In greek/english we*can*  say:
>
> standing before His altar
>
> In the sentence above, although we don't say who this "he" is, the 
> upper case "H" shows that the one in question isn't someone "regular".
> He can be a god, kahless, molor, melkor, etc.
>
> Now, perhaps someone thinks that "by definition the altar is something 
> of a god, or in honor of one". But there's also the case where saying 
> "standing before his altar" can actually mean "the practitioner stands 
> before the altar which he constructed in order to honor whoever he 
> worships".
>
> So it falls upon the "h/H" to distinguish..
>
> The fact that we can't do that simple thing in klingon irritates me.

SuStel:
> The fact that it's done in English irritates me. As a non-religious person, 
> I get annoyed at seeing God have his own special grammar. I'd be glad 
> not to see it in Klingon.

It's not just God (or god, as you prefer). It's also royalty. Pronouns associated with kings and queens, and sometimes with lesser nobility, are often capitalized. And the first person singular pronoun (I) is capitalized for *everyone*. English is wacky.

As a side note, using the royal We in Klingon can be an excellent practice exercise for some of the less common verb prefixes. How often do you actually get to use re- and che- in conversation?

pagh



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