tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 01 15:18:16 1996
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Re: be' & Ha', KLBC
- From: "Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: be' & Ha', KLBC
- Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 15:18:16 -0700
Tim writes:
> I have just received "A Pictorial Guide to the Verbal Suffixes of tlhIngan
> Hol" our first true grammar book, yeah! But, I'm having a problem with
> <-Ha'>; PGVS translates <HoHHa'> as "She miskills him." and has a picture of
> her batlh 'etlh just missing her opponent's head. If <-Ha'> means undo then
> <HoHHa'> is something like "unkill" which I interpret as meaning, in English,
> resurrect or reanimate. The picture I have is something like a doctor
> defibbing a patient. If <-Ha'> is just a negation then I see little
> difference between it and <-be'>. So I come you KLBC and ask, "What gives?"
I'm going to step in here and respond to this ahead of the BG (excuse me, Alan)
because I'm the one responsible for scripting the Suffix Book.
The suffix <-Ha'> is probably my favorite verbal suffix (we're allowed to pick
favorites, aren't we?), precisely because it makes possible some wonderful
concepts that would not typically occur in English. Yes,<-Ha'> had been
presented to us with both the connotation of "undoing" and "misdoing" an action.
The intention in the picture in the suffix book is the latter of these two. The
warrior is trying to kill her opponent and screws up. In hindsight, this might
seem more like <HoHbe'> than <HoHHa'>, but I think it's still defendable.
Probably a better illustration of <HoHHa'> would be a rusty guillotine blade
that only cuts halfway through someone's neck; the victim isn't going to live
much longer, but certainly they've been "miskilled."
I hope this helps.
Lawrence
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