[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: rup

mayqel qunen'oS mihkoun at gmail.com
Wed Oct 27 10:46:40 PDT 2021


I knew it!!! I jay' knew it!!!

Hear ye, hear ye, the words of god himself followeth, as they where
heardeth in a mail senteth to the list on Sunday, May 24, 2020.

(the title of the thread was -lu'wI')

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Regarding -lu'wI' — I checked with Maltz. He said that for poetry (and
maybe other literary forms), this sort of thing may occur from time to
time, but it's not considered "normal" grammar. This is because the meaning
of -lu'wI' (from a Klingon point of view) is odd (but therefore
occasionally appropriate for poetry and such). Leaving -lu' aside for a
while…-wI' is defined in TKD as "one who is, one who does, thing which is,
thing which does." In all cases, the subject of the verb (to which -wI' is
attached) is the doer or the "be-er," the one who performs the action (if
it's that kind of verb) or carries or exhibits the characteristic (if it's
that other kind of verb). The noun formed by adding -wI' is equivalent to
the subject of the verb to which -wI' is attached (as far as meaning goes —
not getting into fine points of grammatical description). yItwI' "walker"
(the subject of yIt is the yItwI') qIpwI' "hitter" (the subject of qIp is
the qIpwI') wochwI' "tall one" (the subject of woch is the wochwI') When
-lu' enters the picture, things change. The subject of a verb with -lu' is
"unknown, indefinite, and/or general." Thus, qIplu' is "someone/something
hits (someone or something)" or, conventionally but not really literally,
"(someone/something) is hit." So qIplu'wI' would mean something like
"indefinite hitter" or "unknown hitter" or "essence of hitter" or some
such  (if it means anything at all).  It doesn't refer to the person (or
thing) being hit because a -wI' noun is the perpetrator or instigator of an
action (or carrier of a trait), not someone (or something) affected by an
action. There may be instances (again, particularly in poetry) where the
imagery or notion of an "unknown/indefinite /vague hitter" makes sense,
though I can't conjure one up right now (and Maltz doesn't want to try). As
for how to say "the hit one, someone who is hit" or "the one who is loved"
-This reminds me of a (pretty funny) book and movie from years ago called
"The Loved One" (about the funeral industry in LA). Here, the phrase "the
loved one," of course, is a euphemism used by the funeral director for
"the deceased  person,"  but  the  implication  is  that  "the  loved
one"  was  loved  by  whomever  the  funeral  director  is  talking to
(or  negotiating  with)  about  the  funeral  —  the  deceased  person  is
"the  one  you  love(d)."  Points  to -bogh , I guess.

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--
Dana'an
https://sacredtextsinklingon.wordpress.com/
Ζεὺς ἦν, Ζεὺς ἐστίν, Ζεὺς ἔσσεται· ὦ μεγάλε Ζεῦ
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