tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 11 11:40:56 1995
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Re: }} Don't greet Death
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: }} Don't greet Death
- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 11:40:56 -0400 (EDT)
According to Elizabeth C. Hoyt:
>
> On Thu, 10 Aug 1995, R.B Franklin wrote:
>
> > Wed, 9 Aug 1995, ghIth tlheghmeQ:
>
> > > Too bad we don't have a word for polite. Maybe {yIjatlhQo' qaqIHneS}
>
> > I translate that last part as, "Don't speak. I meet you, your honor."
>
> It's supposed to be: Don't say "I'm honored to meet you."
> I thought I had this right. Where did I go wrong?
Well, you didn't really go wrong, though you did use the form
of quotation which is least commonly used. It is so uncommonly
used that it is easy to see it and think that it is in error.
Basically, Okrand explains the Sentence-As-Object construction
in TKD, then explains that direct quotations exist in Klingon
as a sort of special Sentence-As-Object form which requires no
pronoun {'e'}. As a side note, with no explanation as to why it
is supposed to make grammatical sense, he says that the verb of
speech can come before the quote. I know of no canon examples
of this word order besides this side note in the grammar
section of TKD.
It doesn't really fit the general grammatical structure of a
Klingon sentence, since it essentially changes things from
Object-Verb-Subject order to Verb-Subject-Object order. I
personally don't like it, thinking that it maps too closely to
English and is ugly by comparison to the cleaner word order
when the verb of speech follows the quotation, but there it is
in TKD saying that you can do it. It doesn't show any examples
to untangle the mess that would happen when you name a third
person who says things like:
The good way:
Qanqor jIH jatlh HoD.
The weird way:
jatlh HoD Qanqor jIH.
Of course, some times it improves things.
The classic way:
yIQaQ targhDaj ra' Qanqor.
The weird way:
targhDaj ra' Qanqor yIQaQ
Still, there are instances where it doesn't really make all
THAT much difference for comprehension, like:
The classic way:
DIp neH 'oH {-wI'} ghajbogh wot'e' jatlh charghwI'.
The weird way:
jatlh charghwI' DIp neH 'oH {-wI'} ghajbogh wot'e'.
> > yoDtargh
>
> ------------------------------
> Peace and Long Life 'ej Qapla'
> Liz (tlheghmeQ joq)
charghwI'
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