tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 11 22:23:27 1998

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Re: KLBC - Another question on adverbs



In e-mail, Kalos <[email protected]> writes:

>I'm sending this to you directly, I hope you don't mind but the last few 
>times I sent it, it didn't come up on the list.

Not a problem, but it's a good question, so I'm posting the answer back to
the list.

Voragh answered Kalos:

>: What about adverbs. I believe that -be' and -qu' may be used. I am not 
>sure
>: about -Ha'.
>:
>: Ken
>
>Actually, it's just the opposite: {-Ha'} can be added to *some* adverbials,
>but I can't find any with {-be'} and {-qu'}.  You're probably remembering
>expressions like {qay'be'!} or {Dajqu'!}, which are third person verbs.

Kalos asks:
>You are probally right. For some reason I recall that an adverb can follow 
>a noun and when (if) it does it can take be' or qu'. Can adverbs follow a 
>noun or did I just hear wrong and if so can it take a be' or qu'???? I can 
>find any source I'm probably goofing up here.

Your source of confusion may be the terminology.

An adverb is, roughly a word that describes the manner in which the action
of a verb is performed (in English adverbs can modify adjectives, too, but
you can ignore that for Klingon).  Many English adverbs end in -ly.  Some
examples: {pe'vIl} (forcefully), {QIt} (slowly), {not} (never), {reH}
(always), {Do'Ha'} (unfortunately).  In Klingon, these go at the beginning
of the sentence.  There are a couple of Klingon adverbs that don't go at the
beginning {jay'} and {neH}. Read about them in section 5.4.

An adjective, on the other hand, modifies a >noun<.  Klingon doesn't really
have adjectives, but we can put verbs describing a quality or condition
after a noun, to modify that noun in the same way that an adjective does.
It passes the duck test.  {Duj tIn} - the big ship.  {paq chIS} - the white
book.  See section 4.4 "Adjectives."

When a verb is acting adjectivally, the only verb suffixes it can take are
{-qu'}, {-be'} and {-Ha'}.  (Yes, 4.4 says only {-qu'} but we've since seen
{-be'} and {-Ha'} in canon).

"Adjective" and "adverb" are words easily confused, especially as Klingon
adjectives are really verbs.  Does this answer your question?

Qov     [email protected]
Now on ICQ: 12235599               



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