tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 20 13:25:08 2003

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RE: no matter what happens...

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Voragh:
> > {SISpu'} "it has rained") makes sense, but not *{SISta'}.
>
> > {SIStaH} "it rains continuously, it's still raining" makes sense,
> > but not *{SISlI'}... unless, of course, that you can control the
> > weather - which might be possible in the future! (g>  (E.g. "Today
> > in the First City, government meteorologists have scheduled rain
> > this morning for three hours, ending at noon.")

pagh:
>I think <SISlI'> may work for some of the desert thunderstorms we get where
>I live. The rain starts abruptly, it rains hard for a short while, and then
>it stops. Sometimes they last as little as ten minutes, and sometimes you
>can even see the stormcloud passing overhead. I'd say this kind of rain has
>a definite stopping point.

Why not just use {loQ} "slightly, a little bit, briefly, short":  {pay' loQ 
SISqu'} or {pay' loQ jev}, etc.  That's what it's for.

I think this is a matter of viewpoint.  Do you really know when it starts 
what the "definite" stopping point of each individual thunderstorm 
is?  (E.g. This is a 10 min. storm, but that one is a 20 min. rain??)  Or 
is it just an informed guess based on experience?

My point was that *all* kinds of rain eventually have a stopping point - at 
least on Earth - whether a brief rain of a few minutes duration (e.g. a 
shower, downpour) or an extended rain of several weeks (e.g. a monsoon), 
but that exact point is nevertheless unknown.  "Whenever it stops" is not 
enough.

Which is not to say that you couldn't theoretically say something like

   wa'leS veng wa'DIchDaq qaStaHvIS wa'maH tup SISlI' 'e' DaHjaj lumaq qum 
muDtejpu'.
   Government meteorologists announced today that it will rain for 10 
minutes in the
   First City tomorrow.

provided they could accurately set or predict the definite stopping 
point.  Who knows?  Maybe they can in the 24th century!  <g>

>In general, though, <SIStaH> is much more likely to be correct.

All of which is extremely theoretical considering that {-lI'} is the least 
frequently used verb suffix.  Indeed, except for his two brief examples in 
the TKD explanation (p. 42f.), Okrand has never used it AFAIK.  (I'm 
wondering... was this yet another back-fit for an actor's error, to be 
explained away and then forgotten?)



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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