tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 06 12:25:28 1997
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Re: KLBC: Power Klingon
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: Power Klingon
- Date: Wed, 6 Aug 97 19:10:02 UT
On Stardate 97597.1 muHwI' wrote:
> ghItlh SuStel:
>
> > Also, {maja'chuqjaj} really isn't used correctly. He's said something
> which
> > comes out more like "May it be so that we speak!"
>
> (from "The Grammarians Desk", page 53)
>
>
[...]After
>
> all, not all uses of {-jaj} are for toasts and the like.
Consider
> this
> sentence from the opening dialogue of the tape:
>
> {maja'chuqjaj}
> Can we talk?
>
> This is just daily conversation, not a toast or a
> piece of
> ritual. This certainly supports the notion that there are
> perfectly
> mundane uses of {-jaj}, and it seems quite reasonable to conclude
> that these would folow normal grammar [...] etc...etc...
>
> So, my question now is, did Qanqor change this thing, or what is about
> {maja'chuqjaj} ?
Krankor and I just happen to disagree, that's all. Neither of us is
authoritative. He believes that the Terran was correctly using Klingon, while
I believe he was not.
> > If he really just wanted to talk, he should have said {maja'chuq}.
> {maja'chuq} does just mean "we talk (to each other)". How can it mean "I
want
> to talk" ?
Literally, "I want to talk" would be {maja'chuq vIneH}.
Klingon is a lot more dependant on context than English is. Let me answer
your question this way. If I walked up to you out of the blue, pointed to a
quiet corner, and said {maja'chuq}, you'd understand exactly what I meant,
right? That's how Klingon works. We've seen it before. For example, {Ha'!
DaH matlhutlh}, translated as "Let us go get a drink."
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97598.4