enbyhoneyfluff asked:

How does one say "I love you" in Kardasi?

cardassianlanguage answered:

I really enjoy getting questions like these, because it’s a chance to once again demonstrate just how ridiculous Cardassians are.

So, to start off, there’s no word for “love” in general. To a Cardassian, that’s terribly imprecise. One word to stand for every possible variety of this very complex emotion? You’re joking, right?

At the moment, we have a few options for the many varieties of love that exist, but I suspect there are even more that we just haven’t got around to putting together yet.

Thus, currently:

I love you [as a close friend]: Nu ka e’gehra'I. [Nuh kah e'ge-h-rah'eye; with the apostrophes as glottal stops (the hyphen in “uh-oh”).]
I love you [since you are a part of my family]*: Nu ka e’kUra'I. [Nuh kah e'koorah'eye]
I love you [romantically]: Nu ka zIra'I. [Nuh kah zeye-rah'eye]

*This is the one case in which Kardasi is not particularly specific. It doesn’t matter linguistically whether you genuinely love your family or you actually wish they would all jump into the sun and die. The important part is keeping up appearances. A Cardassian who publicly proclaimed they didn’t love their family would be almost as shocking as a Cardassian who publicly proclaimed they didn’t love the State (but slightly less dead).

Thanks for asking!