tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 11 00:29:50 1998

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Re: KLBC: Re: qechmey vIHutlh



At 12:33 98-02-08 -0800, HovqIj wrote:

}HIpIch! <chay' "We tell each other a story" vImugh?> jItlhob 'ach  qay'
{-'egh} 
}{-chuq} je 'e' vIlIj. ('e' again... I just can't live without it.) 

It isn't something you can say in Klingon in so many words.  As far as we
know, a Klingon verb can have a reflexive object or a non-reflexive one, not
both.  

It's fine to use {'e'}, just make sure you have the correct prefixes,
subjects and objects.

}> }> DIvI' HolvaD ghItlhvam vImughpu'be'. vaj vImughchoH 
}>
}> I'd put the {-be'} on the verb, not the aspect.  I just find it hard to
}> interpret on the aspect.
}>
}I like it on the aspect. But I'm not a linguist. I'll trust you that it's 
}confusing. (In Klingon this would be {'e'} again! mISmoH 'e' qavoq. This is
not 
}just a bad style I have - see? - when writing Klingon. I do it in all
languages 
}all the time. I think it's impossible to rescue me.)

Again, using {'e'} is not inherently bad.  Using {'e' vIQub} or {'e' vIHar}
whern the meaning is conveyed by the {-law'} suffix is inefficient, and
doing what you just did, using a verb prefix after the {'e'} but implying an
object other than third person singular is ungrammatical.  Understand that
{'e'} is the object of the verb, and the prefix must show this.  You could
say: {mISmoH bIjatlhmo' qavoq}.

}> Here are some to start you off:
}>
}> We understand that the fools sabotaged the life support system.
}yIntagh luSorgh qoHpu' 'e' wIyaj.

majQa'.

}> They acted quickly so we wouldn't notice them.
}DItu'be'meH nom vang.

bIqarqa'.

}> In order to fix it we have to dissassemble the forward gas vent.
}wItI'meH SIp yIb 'et wIlaghnIS. 

I've caught you on a double noun-noun.  Or we understand different things by
"forward gas vent."

{SIp yIb 'et} is the fore of the gas vent, the gas vent's fore.
{'et SIp yIb} is the gas vent of the fore, the fore's gas vent.

My non-Klingon-speaking (as much as anyone can live in a house with me and
be non-Klingon-speaking) observer says that he too would interpret "forward
gas vent" as the gas vent of the fore.

}(maybe {nIn} instead of {SIp}? I'm not quite sure what a "gas vent" is.)

I was thinking {SIp}, but would, of course, have taken either.  I have no
idea what it is, was writing technobabble.

}wa' mu'tlhegh vIchel:
}pab vIghojmeH jIqeqnIS 'e' vISov. 

majQa'.  yIbIj'eghQo'.  bIghojbejlI'.  DaH bIyajqu'law'mo' jIHem jIH.

Qov     [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian                 



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