On Fri, 2 Apr 2021 14:13:53 +0000, Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu> wrote:
BTW, since it comes up so often... have you and Okrand come up with an explicit way to refer to the space between words? {‘olQan} "gap" is the obvious choice:
(qep'a' 2018): like the space between your teeth or the area between rows of seats in a theater, but it (and {‘olQanmey}) can be used for the space in a room, space on a desk, etc. A verb commonly used with {‘olQan} is {‘uch}. This generally means hold, grasp, but when the object is {‘olQan} it’s often translated "occupy" or "take up".
... but Okrand might prefer using a verb such as {chev} "separate" -- as in {chevwI' tlhoy'} "territorial wall" (literally a "separator wall"). *{chevwI' 'olQan} perhaps?
Consider the possibility that the concept [space between words] might not exist in tlhIngan Hol except in discussions of orthography of other languages - _we_ separate words when writing them in the FSE-derived orthography used on the list - but when natives write using the native orthography, it's conceivable that they don't separate words visually, any more than Thai does. While Dr Okrand would certainly have some ideas for expressing the concept, Maltz may not, unless he has studied FSE or some other non-Klingon language whose orthography does use spaces.