On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 04:28, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:
On 10/21/2020 10:04 PM, De'vID wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 at 13:39, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin@gmail.com> wrote:
Given that Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair who talk to each other through a wall, I am strongly inclined to believe that {bIS'ub} is some kind of transformation on "Thisbe". (The "isb" is basically there in both words. One just has to explain why the initial "th" became a {b}.)
In fact, looking at the word as it's written, I'm wondering if it isn't a transcription error, either by Dr. Okrand or somebody else. Lowercase "t" could almost be the same as "b" in handwriting, if one writes the crossbar too short on the left and the loop curves too high on the right. If it had been *{tIS'ub}, there would probably be no doubt that it's a pun on "Thisbe".
(Does anyone have a printed copy of HolQeD 8:3 to check?)
*bIS'ub* appears twice in the article. It it's a mistake, it's a repeated one.
Here are the sentences from HolQeD 8:3 in which it appears: "The word for the interior bottom of something is {bIS'ub}. If an item is located in the bottom of a box, it is located in the box's {bIS'ub}." The two occurrences are back-to-back. If one misreads the word, it's easy enough to copy it wrongly twice in close succession. There is precedence for {t}-{b} confusion in canon: on KGT p.132, the idiom *{tIb; tI'qa' vIghro' rur} "nervous as a tika cat" appears, whereas TKD has {bIt} for "be nervous, uneasy". Dr. Okrand saw "tika" and mistyped *{tIb} for {bIt} (ostensibly because of the initial "t"). It's not implausible that he had "box... bottom" in mind, and mistyped {bIS'ub} for *{tIS'ub}. But in any case, {bIS'ub} is the Klingon word now, however it originated. -- De'vID