Conjunctions - Exclusive "Or," Joining Nouns

Today, we are looking at the conjunction ghap exclusive or.

ghap

ghap joins nouns together. It means or; either one option or the other, but not both. As with je, ghap goes after the nouns it joins together.

Example:-

tlhIngan tera'ngan ghap

means A Klingon or a Terran, but not both.

Mercy Or Power

There is a famous Klingon proverb,

pung HoS ghap

Often written ungrammatically (but traditionally) as pung ghap HoS, the proverb reads Mercy or power. The use of ghap exclusive or reveals the Klingon philosophy - in order to be strong, a Klingon cannot show mercy.

Gate Logic

ghap is the equivalent of the XOR logic gate with two inputs A and B, which returns 1 only if A is 1 and B is 0, or if A is 0 and B is 1, but returns 0 if both A and B are 0 or if A and B are both 1.

tlhIngan tera'ngan ghap	a Klingon or a Terran
chab HIq ghap	a pie or an ale
taj mupwI' ghap	a knife or a hammer
DIpmey wotmey ghap	nouns or verbs
moHaqmey mojaqmey ghap	prefixes or suffixes
loDpu' be'pu' ghap	Men or women
jIH SoH ghap	me or you
jIp rup ghap Segh 'oH	It's a type of penalty or a fine
qama'pu' ray' ghap bIH	They're targets or prisoners
Soj veQ ghap rurbej	Clearly, it looks like food or trash

Next: Exclusive "Or," joining sentences.