tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 21 22:41:22 1996

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Re: KLBC: poHmey

96-02-20 12:51:07 EST, ghItlh 'etlhqengwI':

>I think I missed a good portion of this thread.  Is there something 
>wrong with the following?
>
>poH HIja'

Oh, dear.  ghunchu'wI' already replied to this in exactly the same way
(although much more concisely).  Oh well.  I put enough effort into it that
I'm going to send it anyway.

Well, yes.  There are one and a half things wrong (I'll explain the half
below).  First, you used the dreaded object-switch.  I could illustrate this
somewhat by using the other listed translation of {ja'}: "Report me the
time."  What you're really trying to say is "Report the time *to me*."  So we
close in on {jIHvaD poH yIja'}.  Unfortunately, Okrand has done this sort of
thing before, and I don't think he realized what he was doing.  Until
something is written about it, I like to assume that it is a valid
construction only in certain cases (ie. there are a few times when the rules
are broken, see TKD p.9).  For example, I agree that one can say
{ro'qegh'Iwchab HInob} (PK), but that may only be valid for the particular
situation, or for referring to food, or only for the verb {nob} (and whatever
else Okrand did this with).  I admit that my reasoning must include the
possibility that this is always a valid construction, but I *REALLY* don't
want to believe that.  It would go against all of the grammar in TKD!

Now for the half-thing wrong: {poH} refers to a "period of time."  When one
is asking the time, one is asking for the time at that moment.  Or at least,
that's always been my interpretation.  "What is the time at this very
moment?"  However, you've given me the interesting idea that one *could* be
asking for the particular hour.  Unfortunately, this would be very imprecise.
 For example, at 18:24 one Klingon says to another: {poH yIja'}.  The
response is: {wa'maH chorghvatlh rep}.  It would be the name of the current
time period, in this case, an hour.  All in all, though, I don't think
Klingons would resort to this very imprecise method.

I like charghwI''s compromises: {tlhaqwIj chu'Ha'lu'pu'}, {tlhaqwIj
niHlu'pu'}, although I'm uncomfortable with his {loj tlhaqlIj}.  "Your watch
is all gone"?

SuStel
Hovjaj 96142.3

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