tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 11 12:17:31 2002

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Re: -di' or -chugh



At 05:03 AM Monday 2/11/02, you wrote:
>The first part is rendered from "No battle (in history) has ever been won
>according to plan," or paraphrasally, "Whenever a battle has been won, the
>plan has never been followed exactly."
>
>But how do you express "ever", "sometime", "anytime"? In this case, I'm

The only example of these words I can find in canon is:

   not lay'Ha' tlhIngan.
   No Klingon ever breaks his word. TKW
   (lit. "A Klingon never breaks his word."

Note Okrand just used {not} "never" = "not ever".

>trying to contrast several events that happen over a range of times from an
>event that happens only hypothetically. This difference is easily expressed
>in English by "ever", e.g. "Have you seen him?" (once or a few limited times)

   Dalegh'a'?
   Did you see him?

>vs. "Have you ever seen him?" (choose from among all past times).

Since you're speaking about one completed - if hypothetical - event out of 
several, just use the perfective:

   Daleghpu''a'?
   Have you (ever) seen him?

>Ok, scratch that. Let me start over. What about this?
>
>not nab pabchu' may' Qapbogh vay''e', 'ach not may' Qapqu' nabbe'bogh je vay'.

"As for someone who wins a battle (he) never follows the plan exactly, but 
someone who doesn't also plan will never really win a battle."

I'm not sure I have an elegant solution, but here are two proverbs from TKW 
which might be worth studying:

   noH QapmeH wo' Qaw'lu'chugh yay chavbe'lu' 'ej
   wo' choqmeH may' DoHlu'chugh lujbe'lu'.
   Destroying an empire to win a war is no victory, and
   ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat.

   noH ghoblu'DI' yay quv law' Hoch quv puS
   In war there is nothing more honorable than victory.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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