tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 16 01:01:39 1997

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Re: KLBC:courtroom2



At 15:04 97-10-15 -0700, qa'SuvwI' wrote:

> Hello it's qa'SuvwI' here
> Here's part two of the Klingon courtroom drama

> bIghHa'Daq In prison 

Not a sentence, on its own, but I'm sure you realize that, and it's not a 
problem, either.

> qama' jatlh Human The human speaks to the prisoner 

I read this as: "Prisoner," says the Human.  The object of jatlh is 
normally the type of thing spoken: {mu'mey, SoQ, vIt ...}. When the 
addressee is first or second person that can be represented with the 
object prefix ({qajatlh}  "I spoke to you") but normally a 
beneficiary who is not the direct object of an action is indicated with the 
type 5 noun suffix {-vaD}.

qama'vaD jatlh Human

We learn this partly from the addendum to 2nd edition TKD and from 
observation and some unpublished explanation MO has given us.

> Human:HoH luparHa' tlhIngan 'e' jIQub I thought that 
> Klingons liked killing 

Remember that the first sentence is the object of the second one, and 
therefore the prefix on the second verb must be one representing a 
third person object.  {... 'e' vIQub}.  

I also want to point out for anyone who didn't realize, that
the {HoH} in the sentence is the _noun_ "killing" and not the verb 
"kill."  This is correct.  If {HoH} were a verb only then it couldn't 
be the object of the verb {luparHa'}.  I write this paragraph because 
I suspect some people don't remember that {HoH} is a noun.

> tlhIngan qama' The prioner is Klingon 

If {tlhIngan} were a verb meaning "be Klingon" this ould work, but it is
just a noun meaning "Klingon," a Klingon peron. The structure to translate
"<thing1> is a <thing2>" in Klingon is {<thing2> <pronoun> <thing1>'e'}.  It
requires a pronoun as well as the noun.

{tlhIngan ghaH qama''e'}  "The prisoner is a Klingon"

> qama':HoH wIparHa' maH, 'ach pujwI' 
> HIvlu'chugh quv'lu' 
> We do, but there is no honour in attacking the 
> weak 

I think you mean {quvHa'lu'} "one is dishonoured"
Other than that, majQa'.  {lu'} Dayajlaw'.

> Human:batlh vIghaj I have honour qama':batlhbe' Daghaj You 
> have no honour

{batlh Daghajbe'} The only time the negation suffix {-be'} doesn't go 
on a verb is in a pronoun-as-'to be' constructionn, where it goes on 
the pronoun.  It makes no sense on {batlh}.

> Sorry for missing out the prefixes on part 1 hope this is 
> better Qov as to your final coment

moHaqmey Danoppu'mo' Daghoj.  DaH DaSov.  
lutlIj vIlaDlI' 'e' vItIv.

Qov     [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian                 



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