tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jul 04 22:25:09 1998
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Re: KLBC: not once, not twice...
[I believe Qov has already replied to this, so I'll add my cha' DarSeq...]
On Sun, 28 Jun 1998, Quvar muHwI' wrote:
>We know the suffix {-be'} "not", which is a Verb suffix.
> e.g. {qaleghbe'} "I do not see you"
>Is there a way to use this with nouns ("not your dog") or even other
>words ("not once")?
>I came up with this idea with the song "Degh" which ends with
> *mu'vaD [...] maQam. wa'loghbe', cha'loghbe' 'ach wejlogh*
> "We stand up for (our) word(s) [...] not once, not twice but thrice"
>Or should it only be {wa'logh maQambe'} etc ?
You've answered your own question. Since it is a verb suffix, {-be'} can only
be attached to a verb, or a pronoun acting as a verb. Period. Although
"not" is an independent word in English and can be used in incomplete
phrases, you have to attach it to something in Klingon, but only the right
thing. E.g. {targhlIj 'oHbe'} "It's not your targ", short for {targhlIj
'oHbe' targhvam'e'} "This targ isn't your targ", {targhlIj 'oHbe'
Ha'DIbaHvetlh'e'} "That animal isn't your targ", etc.
For "not (even) once", we now have {paghlogh} "zero times" which Okrand
describes in KGT (p.178) as an "emphatic alternative for {not} (never), as in
{paghlogh jegh tlhIngan SuvwI'} (a Klingon warrior surrenders zero times) ...
compare {not jegh tlhIngan SuvwI'} (a Klingon warrior never surrenders)."
This can be contrasted with {Hochlogh} "all times" or "every (single) time",
a marked alternative to {reH} (always).
Sentence fragments have to be understandable to the audience according to the
rules of their language. *{wa'loghbe', cha'loghbe' 'ach wejlogh} would only
be heard as {wa'logh be', cha'logh be' 'ach wejlogh ...} or "a woman once,
the woman twice but thrice..." which makes no sense at all. If you really
want to preserve an abbreviated progression, try something like {wa'logh
ghobe'! cha'logh ghobe'! 'ach wejlogh maQam} "Once, no! Twice, no! But three
times we stand." Not perfect, perhaps, but at least it's understandable.
{wa'logh maQambe'. cha'logh maQambe' ...} will also work. See which fits
the music better.
As to whether {mu'vaD [...] maQam} translates the English idiom, "we stand up
for our words," that's another matter entirely.
Voragh