[tlhIngan Hol] Etymology of {De'wI'}

[SuStel]

On 10/3/2020 12:37 PM, SCOTT wrote:
> I am curious about the etymology of {De'wI'} ("computer"). {De'} is a noun meaning "data." {-wI'} is, of course, both a noun suffix ('my") and a verb suffix ("thing which does").
>
> Normally, I would expect a noun to to take a nouns suffix. That would make {De'wI'} "my data," hardly a likely translation of "computer."
>
> It seems, rather, that the noun {De'} is taking the verb suffix, making it "thing which... datas (?)." Is that, in fact, what is happening here? If so, are there other known cases of nouns taking verb suffixes, or of verbs taking noun suffixes?

A similar word is *DeghwI'*/helmsman,/ which makes one really want to 
translate *Degh* as /helm (v),/ but we have no such word. Likewise, 
*De'wI'* /computer/ makes one want to translate *De'* as /compute (v),/ 
but we also have no such word.

See TKD section 3.2.3 "Other complex nouns" for why we can't analyze 
these nouns this way. We can't do the etymological research called for 
because Klingons aren't real.

I wonder if the Old Klingon text in /paq'batlh/ has any illuminating 
examples of such words. This would be an interesting philological study...

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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