tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 20 23:18:43 2002
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Re: RE: QeD De'wI' ngermey
From: "...Paul" <[email protected]>
> On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Alan Anderson wrote:
> > That's a borrowed word, not an invented one, and I'd expect anyone who's
> > ever been to a largish gathering of Klingon speakers to understand it.
But
> > do you also use {qoQqoq} to refer to the diet version? :-)
>
> mu'vetlh vIjatlhtaHvIS HughwIj 'oy' law' vItlhutlhtaHvIS jatwIj 'oy' puS!
Oh boy. You've followed the pattern of the known-to-be-ungrammatical
/QamvIS Hegh QaQ law' torvIS Hegh QaQ puS/. It's not only ungrammatical
because of the lack of /-taH/s. It's also got subordinate clauses modifying
NOUNS, not attached to sentences.
You can't say */QamtaHvIS Hegh/ for "death while standing." /-vIS/ words
modify verbs, not nouns. Likewise, you can't say */mu'vetlh vIjatlhtaHvIS
HughwIj/ for "my throat while speaking that word." And you can't say that
the subordinate clause is modifying the entire sentence, because you've also
got */vItlhutlhtaHvIS jatwIj/ "my tongue while I am drinking it." Neither
of these works.
(/'oy'/ may also be a bad choice, since its definition doesn't make it clear
whether it's an action, a quality, or both. Can you talk about an /'uS
'oy'/ "sore leg"? Or does it have to be an /'oy'bogh 'uS/ "leg which
aches"?)
SuStel
Stardate 2889.0