[tlhIngan Hol] what is the opposite of {vItlh}

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Tue Sep 7 07:14:40 PDT 2021


On 9/7/2021 7:58 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> Back in the day (as americans say) we were saying:
>
> {'ul law'}
> much electricity
>
> {'ul puS}
> little electricity
>
> Then the game changed, and we begun to say:
>
> {'ul vItlh}
> much electricity
>
> But what was obviously forgotten was how to say "little electricity".

*'ul vItlhHa'.*

Here's how I visualize *-Ha'.* It's like a vector. If you imagine a verb 
having a direction, adding *-Ha'* means to deflect it from its normal 
direction.

So if you imagine *jatlh* /speak/ as having a "direction of 
communication," an imaginary direction representing progressing speech, 
then *jatlhHa'*/misspeak/ is a deflection from the normal direction of 
*jatlh.* If you imagine *par*/dislike/ as having an emotional direction, 
the more this way the more dislike, then *parHa'*/like/ is a 180-degree 
turn.

*-Ha'* isn't just negation (that's *-be'*). Negation wouldn't be a 
vector; it would be a stoppage of the imagined motion. *-Ha'* isn't just 
the opposite. It's a deflection from the normal course.

So *vItlh* can clearly be imagined as having a direction. Most of us 
would imagine that direction as upward. *vItlhHa'* would be a deflection 
from upward, and for most contexts it would make the most sense to be a 
turning to downward. Hence, if *vItlh* is /high (in quantity, 
intensity),/ then *vItlhHa'* is /low (in quantity, intensity)./

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name
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