[tlhIngan Hol] bom tIQ vItu'

[Mark E. Shoulson]

(I know, I don't usually answer here. Fact is, I hardly ever even see 
posts from this list _except_ ones from SuStel, which for whatever 
reason aren't sorted into the right mail bucket.  But just something to 
mention.)

On 11/1/21 11:54, SuStel wrote:
>
> We have different words for the noun /wind/ and what it does, /blow./ 
> I'm not sure Klingons would say things like *SuS SuS* /the wind 
> blows,/ because it's just saying the same word over again. I suspect 
> they'd say something like *SuS 'e' DaQoylaH'a'*/Can you hear it blow?/ 
> meaning, sort of, /Can you hear that it is windy? /This is just my guess.
>
Not that there's anything wrong with your suggestion, but do note that 
"just saying the same word over again" is not all that uncommon or 
strange-sounding in many languages.  You can live your life or die a 
horrible death; W.S. Gilbert's Judge in _Trial by Jury_ sings of how he 
"danced a dance," or you can sing a song. OK, these are not _precisely_ 
the same words, but you could probably find examples like these that 
have the same word.  Heh, we joked about how "song song song sing sing 
sing sing song" in _Good Morning, Starshine_ would just be "bom bom bom 
bom bom bom bom bom."  (Krankor brilliantly does "sing a song, song a 
sing" as "bomna' yIbomchu'; bomchu' yIbomna'", breaking grammar on 
purpose).  You can even ask "where did the fly fly off to?"

I remember once someone told me that verbs that do this are called 
"unergative" verbs (or maybe they were the "unaccusative" ones.)  A 
brief glance at Wikipedia pages does not seem to support this, or at 
least it's more complicated.

~mark
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