tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 01 20:13:28 1996

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Re: be' & Ha', KLBC

tIm writes:
>...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?"

Lawrence answered well (and quickly), but I decided to chip in anyway.
TKD section 4.3 gives two interpretations for {-Ha'}.  One is the "undo"
meaning you are considering.  But {-Ha'} "...is also used if something
is done wrongly."  The example given is {bIjatlhHa'chugh} "if you say the
wrong thing" or "if you misspeak".  While {-be'} is simple negation, the
absence of the action, {-Ha'} is active.  Either the opposite of the
action or a corruption of the action occurs.  Actually, I think that the
"undo" or "opposite" meaning can probably be viewed simply as a special
case of the "corruption" idea.

{ghItlhHa'} is usually translated "mis-write", not "un-write" or "erase".
It's how many of us express the idea "make a typographical error".

>Sov 'e' bajnISlu'

I don't recognize {baj}, but this is a poorly formed sentence in any case.
TKD 6.2.5 says in cases like this when the subject of the second verb is
"one" or "someone", {net} is used instead of {'e'}.  As an example, we see
{qama'pu' DIHoH net Sov} "One knows we kill prisoners."  Note that {-lu'}
is *not* used here.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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