Archive of Okrandian Canon
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From: Marc Okrand <mokrand@erols.com>
Newsgroups: startrek.klingon
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 22:53:39 -0500
Subject: Re: -be', -Ha'
David Trimboli wrote ...
>Qermaq wrote ...
>>>par parHa' dislike like
>>>naD naDHa' commend discommend
>>>yuD yuDHa' dishonest honest
>>
>>Dishonesty may be a default too. Odd that <voq> is "trust" though...
>>
>>>yep yepHa' careful careless
>
>
>An idea: ALL of these, including {voq}, could be the "default," as Qermaq
>suggests. Consider a battle (a fairly default Klingon activity). Liking
>and being honest are not particularly important in battle. However,
>trusting and being careful are. Whether or not this is the actual reason
>for these alleged defaults, it shows that there might easily be a good
>reason that {voq} defaults to what we consider a positive term.
>
>(Note: disliking and being dishonest may equate with positive terms in
>Klingon, thus their being "defaults.")
>
>SuStel
Learning about Klingon character or mindset by way of studying what Qermaq terms "defaults" in vocabulary will probably lead to interesting insights. I think both Qermaq and SuStel are on the right track: {par} "dislike," for example, is probably the more neutral or expected reaction of a Klingon to someone else; {parHa'} "like" (or, more revealingly, "not dislike" or "undislike" or "misdislike" or even "disdislike" [?!], since it's made up of {par} "dislike" plus {-Ha'}, the negative suffix implying that something is undone or done wrongly) is a modification (an undoing?) of this expected reaction.
It may be that not everything has a default. Note, for example, {QuchHa'} "be unhappy" and {'IQ} "be sad." These two words don't mean quite the same thing: {QuchHa'} is made up of {Quch} "be happy" plus the negative suffix {-Ha'}, suggesting a change from being happy to not being happy. {'IQ} does not have this connotation, nor does {Quchbe'} "be not happy" (or, if you prefer, "not be happy"). Nevertheless, is the default in this pair {Quch} "be happy" or is it {'IQ} "be sad"?
On the other hand, when the only way to express a certain idea is by modifying a word (for example, by adding a suffix) rather than using an entirely different word, perhaps one can argue that the nonmodified word is the default. Thus, the only (known) way to express the opposite of {par} "dislike" is by adding a negative suffix to {par}. Unlike {QuchHa'} "be unhappy" and {'IQ} "be sad," there's no choice when it comes to "like"; you've got to use a word based on {par}: {parHa'}. It appears that the only kind of "like" there is is the "undoing" or "misapplication" of "dislike." (Of course, you could also say {parbe'} "like" or, more literally, "not dislike," using the negative suffix {-be'} "not"; but {parbe'} is also based on {par}. {parHa'} is heard more frequently than {parbe'}, however, and this may be a hint at the usual way a Klingon looks at things.)
Interestingly (and bolstering the idea that "dislike" is a default), there's also the word {muS} "hate" (which is presumably stronger somehow than {par} "dislike"). It also has no known opposite except for the suffixed forms: {muSHa'} "dis-hate" or "unhate"; {muSbe'} "not hate."