tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 14 20:48:55 1997
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Re: Ha'DIbaHmey
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Ha'DIbaHmey
- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 97 03:45:52 UT
[email protected] on behalf of Qov wrote:
> At 08:51 PM 9/12/97 -0700, SuStel wrote:
> >[email protected] on behalf of Qov wrote:
> >> {nuq} doesn't mean "which." {tlhIngan Ha'DIbaH nuq} means "a Klingon
> >> animal's what?" "the what of a Klingon animal?" We would rephrase your
> >> question as a command "Identify the terran animal that resembles a wolf."
> >
> >Actually, your translation is not supported by canon. {tlhIngan Ha'DIbaH
> >nuq}
> >means "What is a Klingon animal?"
>
> Certainly, by itself as a sentence, it means that, in clipped Klingon.
I don't think it's clipped. Okrand didn't say anything about it being
clipped, he said (in a post to the MSN forum)
Question words (in this case, nuq
"what?") function the same way pronouns do in questions
with "to be" in the English translations. Thus, the
question yIH nuq? "What is a tribble?" is exactly parallel
the statement yIH 'oH "It is a tribble" (where yIH is
"tribble" and 'oH is "it"). The answer to the question yIH
nuq? ("What is a tribble?") would presumably be a
definition or description of a tribble.
{yIH nuq} is a complete, unclipped sentence as far as we can see.
> But as surely as {tlhIngan Ha'DIbaH tlhuQ} means "a Klingon amimal's tail,"
> {tlhIngan Ha'DIbaH nuq} means "a Klingon animal's what?"
Not really so surely. There's been a lot of debate on that point. Can
question words be used in this way? Could you say {'Iv tlhIngan Ha'DIbaH} for
"whose Klingon animal"? If so, shouldn't you also be able to say {SoH
tlhIngan Ha'DIbaH} for "your Klingon animal"?
--
SuStel
qoH vuvbe' SuStel
Stardate 97706.1