There is nothing new under the sun

 

"There is nothing new under the sun." William Shakespeare said that, right?  Nope. It is from the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Negative Grammatical Constructions

William Shakespeare is almost universally recognized as the greatest writer of the  English language in history.  He is known to have used double and triple negative constructions for emphasis.

A double negative has two negative words in one sentence.  The effect of two negatives is that the second negative negates the first, rendering the meaning as a positive statement.

In a triple negative construction, the third negative returns the meaning of the sentence to a negative form.  Think of “No, not never!”

The Puritan preacher Thomas Lye (d. 1684, England) pointed out such a construction occurring in Hebrews 13:5.

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

Lye said that this construction could be translated as "I will not, not leave thee; neither will I not, not forsake thee."  Effectively, this is a quintuple negative.

ἀφιλάργυρος ὁ τρόπος, ἀρκούμενοι τοῖς παροῦσιν. αὐτὸς γὰρ εἴρηκεν, οὐ μή σε ἀνῶ οὐδ' οὐ μή σε ἐγκαταλίπω,  οὐ is translated in English as "no," or "not"  God will never leave or abandon us.

William Shakespeare and the Bible

William Shakespeare (b. 1564, England - d. 1616) is considered to have been the greatest English-language writer in history.  Portions of his writings have been translated into about 80 different languages with his complete works having translated into 30 languages.

The Bible has been translated into 2572 languages with more being added regularly.

I am not sure exactly what I think of this , but I believe that at least some of these translators are serious in their intent.  Klingon is a totally artificial language created for the alien Klingon race of the Star Trek television and movie series.