tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 19 14:08:03 1998
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Re: KLBC: Re: qechmey vIHutlh
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: Re: qechmey vIHutlh
- Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:07:50 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Christiane Scharf" at Feb 19, 98 01:44:25 pm
According to Christiane Scharf:
...
> I agree with you that my sentence wasn't too good, but yours isn't
> actually what I want, either. I admit I should have written "stories"
> instead of "story", but I didn't think too much about context at that
> time. I just wondered if there was a grammatical construction that could
> be used generally.I'll explain what I look for:
> A group of warriors is meeting. They sit together, drink, sing,
> whatever... and they tell each other the famous stories of Kahless.
>
> Here are some new attempts:
>
> 1.majatlhchuq. lutmey DIjatlh. -We talk to each other. We tell stories.
> (Note that I changed {ja'chuq} into {jatlhchuq}; I think it's better
> because it can't be misunderstood so easily)
> That's the easiest way. But it is likely to be interpreted that we both
> talk to each other and tell stories, maybe it's even understood as a
> sequence of actions.
This is interesting. {jatlhchuq} normally would not work
because we know the object of {jatlh} is the thing said, not
the person spoken to. Meanwhile, we do allow the shortcut of
using the indirect object (person spoke to) as the object in
the verb prefix for first and second person, so I can say
{qajatlh} and get away with it. Okrand gave us that one a while
back. {majatlh} definitely has a first person object. We don't
have any examples of {-chuq} used to indicate indirect object.
Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn't. I'm not sure.
> 2.majatlhchuqtaHvIS lutmey DIjatlh. - While we are talking to each other
> we tell stories.
> Similar. Could be two different actions, but they are definitely
> happening at the same time.
This is probably better.
> 3. lut jatlhtaH maH wa' nuv 'ej 'IjtaH maH latlh nuv. qaSpu'DI' ghaH
> luDa latlh nuv. - One of us tells a story and the others of us are
> listening. When this has happened, others act like him/her.
> Very wordy and not too clear, too.
I doubt it is nearly grammatical. Nice try, though.
> 4. lut jatlhtaHvIS maH wa' nuv 'IjtaH maH latlh nuv. qaSpu'DI'... -
> While one of us is telling a story, the others of us are listening. When
> this...
> Almost the same. As wordy as above, no clearer, maybe a bit better in
> style.
Not really.
> 5. maHvaD lutmey DIjatlh. - We tell stories for us.
> I just don't know if that's grammatical. And also a bit ambiguous: It
> could mean that every single person is just speaking for him-/herself.
> Sounds silly, but they might be totally drunk or influenced by drugs...
It is perfectly grammatical. I can also understand it to mean
what you want it to mean. It also is simple. I like it best of
all you offer.
> Opinions? Better solutions?
matIvchuqmeH lutmey DIjatlh.
> > As for tense, that's not an issue in Klingon. Just give some
> > sort of time reference at some point in the communication and it
> > is taken care of.
> >
>
> bIlugh. vIqawqang.
>
> > charghwI'
>
> HovqIj
charghwI'