Am 29.01.2020 um 12:47 schrieb mayqel qunen'oS:
Aren't we supposed to worship without question the words of maltz, kneeling in cult-like reverence before them, with nothing but the purest and unflinching loyalty ? Aren't they the holiest of holies, not to be defied, falsified, or willingly strayed from ?
Partially true. But look at the order of events: Jack asked: "[...]what the most appropriate way of saying "read aloud" is." Maltz answered: "[...] that paq mu'(mey) jatlh would work fine. First, this is not a special expression, no slang, no idiom, just standard words. You could have made it up yourself, following known grammar. When Okrand writes "could work fine" sounds like "yeah, okay. There's many ways, and this is away to do it." He did not explicitely say like "This is always expressed with xy" or "there is a special phrase" etc. The next thing is another question:
If we read {Suvchu'pu' SuvwI'}, then wouldn't we be forced to *only* understand that the "warrior fought to the death" ? Or could it mean too that, "the warrior fought perfectly, but without finally having dying in combat" ?
I would answer generally that you should always focus on the Klingon words, not the English translations. That counts for every language, btw. In this case, as opposed to the reading thing, the message is very clear (KGT 49:) <<<< [...] when used with some verbs of fighting, implies that the fight results in death. From the Klingon point of view, {Suvchu'} ("fight perfectly") is "fight to the death." A similar construction is used for dueling ({Hay'chu',} "duel to the death"). >>>> This is very clear with no doubt. But that's a cultural thing. That's why it also says "From the Klingon point of view". We all know that Klingons enjoy fighting, and when a Klingon fights in a perfect way, he does until he dies, he won't take a break or run away. A kamikaze fighter also dies in battle, but a Klingon would see no honor in fighting in a suicide mission, so that would not be called {Suvchu'} by a Klingon, but still by the kamikaze fighters. Now, from a Terran point of view, a team of football players can certainly {Suvchu'} in their match if they play in a way that they win the game. They won't die in that game, just just "fight" in a perfect way. [setting aside the discussion if football players really fight, but it may work in a karate competition; you get the point] So, briefly {Suvchu'} is "to the death" for a Klingon, but literally only means "fight perfectly". Reading aloud uses the verb {jatlh}, but you can certainly {jatlh} words from a book without holding it. -- Lieven L. Litaer aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany" http://www.klingonisch.de http://www.klingonwiki.net/Word/Chu-