tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 13 14:36:25 1998

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Re: KLBC: "to be"



well, thanks... didn't help me anything further tho ;-)

actually I like Klingon very much because it is so limited and the trick is
to find alternatives... but I have not found an alternative yet for some of
the more complex sentences where the verb "to be" plays a central role...

-Chakotay

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>


>ANDRE PADILLA   <[email protected]> wrote:
>>The verb for "to be" is "taH - continue".
>
>Not correct!
>
>The verb {taH} "continue, go on, endure" is used in the famous words
>from Hamlet: {taH pagh taHbe'} "He endures or he does not endure."
>In English, the line is "To be or not to be," but the translation is
>not a literal one.  {taH} does *not* mean "to be".
>
>1) Andre, please wait for the Beginners' Grammarian to answer notes
>   that are marked with KLBC.
>
>2) The Klingon Dictionary section 6.3 explains that there is no verb
>   meaning "to be" in the Klingon language.
>
>3) TKD 6.3 goes on to explain how pronouns can be used in the sense of
>   "to be" in a couple of limited contexts.  One of these is the sort
>   of "I am a fool" idea that prompted Albert Arendsen's question.
>
>-- ghunchu'wI'
>
>



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