tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 27 07:14:05 1994

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-meH -qu' as "too ... to ... " (was Re: KLBC (old): SaQum)



Hu'tegh! nuq ja' Mark E. Shoulson jay'?
=>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>

=>tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhmeH jIpo'qu'be'.
=>"For the purpose that I speak Klingon, I am not very skilled."

Now you see, *this* is why you people should be checking my Klingon text.
I've been using this construction too. In fact, I've been using it for 'too':
to translate "too drunk to mate", I'd say naghmeH chechqu'.

Granted, context should usually clear up that the two verbs are incompatible,
so it must be "too ... to", not "really ... in order to ..." (not in the
example above, though!) Still, I'm inclined to agree with Mark that it's too 
idiomatic to make sense in Klingon (-meH isn't described as "when one 
considers the purpose of" or "while trying to do", but explicitly "something
is done for the purpose of accomplishing something"). But I'll wait on purging 
my texts of it (yet *another* purge) until I get a couple more confirmations.

Nick.



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