On Sat, 11 Sept 2021 at 15:35, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:

On 9/11/2021 9:22 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:

Seemingly/apparently, in direct address you can't use the word {joH} unless you either say {ghawran joH} or {joHwI'}.

So, let's say you see a lord ready to cross the street and be run over by a bus.. You don't remember his name, and he isn't your lord either..

According to the wisdom of the klingon language, you can't say {joH, yIyItchoHQo'}. Oh, no.. That's wrong..

Hang on. What wisdom are you referring to? I don't remember seeing anything that said joH without the -wI' can't be used in direct address all by itself. Did I miss something?

I think mayqel may have misunderstood this sentence:

> When addressing the head of a house, a member of a lower class may use either the name plus {joH} or else {joH} plus {-wI'} [...] {joHwI'} (my Lord, my Lady).

It says "the head of *a* house", not "the head of *one's own* house". It's perfectly fine to say {joHwI'} in direct address to a head of a Klingon House which isn't one's own. The use of the possessive {-wI'} here seems to indicate "a lord/lady relative to me", "a person in a higher social position relative to me", and not necessarily "the lord/lady of my house".

De'vID