tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 26 21:35:20 2000
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Re: KliFlash [Was: Re: tlhIngan Hol pojwI' 2.0]
: ghItlh Voragh:
: > According to Okrand's article in HolQeD 8.3, {pIq} and {ret} follow the
: > noun specifying the lengh of time involved:
: >
: > pIq "period of time from now"
: > - cha' tup pIq
: > "two minutes from now".
: >
: > ret "period of time ago"
: > - cha' tup ret
: > "two minutes ago"
: >
: > These are words for those irregular periods of time not otherwise provided
: > for: Hu'/leS for days, wen/waQ for months, ben/nem for years. We were
: > told specifically there isn't one of these word pairs for weeks, oddly
: > enough.
:
: toH, DaH vIyaj. Although, I wonder if this definition totally precludes the
: way I used it. {tugh} isn't quite accurate, since it won't really be soon.
: I'm planning to do it sometime in the future. If {cha' tup pIq} means "two
: minutes from now" (maybe "two minutes in the future"?), are we sure {pIq}
: can't mean simply "in the future"?
Considering this was only revealed in September, it's still to early to
know for sure but I consider it HIGHLY unlikely. You're trying to re-write
the grammar and create completely unnecessary tense markers:
ret DaH pIq = past present future
Okrand specifically rejected grammatical tense for Klingon - something he's
repeated over and over again - choosing aspect instead. (As in a handful
of Amerindian languages he was no doubt familiar with.) We know from
interviews that {-pu'} was originally going to be just a past-tense suffix,
but for some reason - perhaps out of sheer orneriness - Okrand changed his
mind and went in a different direction.
If you need to say something will be done in the future, you can guestimate
if you don't have a precise date using the existing vocabulary: {leS law'}
"a many days from now", {nem puS} "a few years from now", etc. We've
routinely used the "ago" words for this, particularly {ben}: {ben law'qu'}
"many, many years ago" (i.e. once upon a time?).
Okrand clearly, if briefly, explained that {pIq} and {ret} follow the noun
specifying the length of time involved and provided examples. Seems pretty
straight-forward clear to me.
Nice try, but no cigar.
: -- ter'eS
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons