tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 29 15:21:44 1998

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Re: KLBC - Adverbials

: ---Burt Clawson  wrote:
: > tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhtaHmeH Do' tugh loQ jIpo'.
: > "With luck I will soon be a little skilled at speaking Klingon."
: 
: I think I corrected you recently for using /Do'/ as a conditional, and
: I realize now I was likely wrong.  /Do'/ definitely means "with luck"
: as in "in a manner that indicates luck," "luckily."  I haven't seen it
: mean "if I am lucky" in canon; I don't even remember others using it
: that way on the list, but that is the common meaning of "with luck" in
: English. For this meaning we also have /jIDo'chugh/.
: 
: So /Do' DoS vIqIp/ could mean "Luckily, I hit the target" or "With
: luck, I will hit the target."  And in a tenseless language it makes
: sense for the adverb to perform that way.
: 
: Qov - Beginners' Grammarian

Adverbial {Do'} "luckily, with luck" has been used once by Okrand, but only
on the old MSN Expert Forum, so you can be excused for not knowing about it:

 - "As for how to use {Sum} 'be near, nearby' -- that will require
    some more time with Maltz. {Do' Sum matlh.}" (MSN BBS 9/01/97)

Verbal {Do'} "be fortunate, be lucky" has been used thus:

 - maDo'Ha' 
   We are (always) unlucky. TKD
 - maDo'be' 
   We are not lucky. TKD
 - maDo'choH 
   We are becoming lucky. We are undergoing a turn of luck. TKD
 - bach Do' qaH
   A lucky shot sir... ST3
 - ma'Do'chugh QeHchoH wa'                       <-----====<<< N.B.
   If we're lucky, one will get angry. CK



Voragh                          "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons    lis est."        - Horace, Ars Poetica

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