Re: Klingon and puns (was Re: Klingon grammar)
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, January 4, 2004, 3:40 |
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On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 09:54:12PM +0100, Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
> > {tlhaQ} (which sounds a lot like
> >"clock" under the assumption that {tlhIngan} sounds like "Klingon")
> >means "chronometer",
>
> Couldn't that be supposed to be an English
> loanword, since Trek Earthlings speak English?
Possible, but it would be an odd word to borrow. Presumably
the Klingons had time-telling devices long before contact with
Earthlings.
There are some acknowledged loans, such as {qa'vIn} (from "caffeine") for
"coffee" (I imagine they were already aware of the chemical compound and have
a (unknown to us) native word for it, but didn't have the beverage . . .)
-Mark