tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 06 09:13:13 2004

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RE: wa'leS as subject

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

ghel lay'tel SIvten:
> > so far i haven't heard an answer to my question:
> > can i say: latlh jaj 'oH wa'leS'e' = tomorrow is another day.

Holtej:
>{wa'leS} is listed in TKD as a noun, so according to the grammar you can use
>it this way.  The only example I know of from canon uses it as a timestamp:
>
>   TKW p. 153
>   {yIlop! wa'leS chaq maHegh!}
>   Celebrate!  Tomorrow we may die!

Here are some more, all timestamps:

   wa'leS jIDoy'
   Tomorrow I'll be tired. CK

   wa'leS jIchegh
   Tomorrow I will return. KGT

   wa'leS jIcheH
   Tomorrow I will defect. KGT

   wa'leS maghob.  ghIq malop.
   Tomorrow we will do battle. Then (after that) we'll celebrate. (HQ 8.3)

>As for me, I have no problem with your sentence above.

Me neither.

> > "ben" is treated differently from "leS" and "Hu'", in that the latter two
> > are usually written as part of a compound word, whereas "ben" is always
> > separate.
>
>{leS}, {Hu'} and {ben} are all listed as nouns in TKD.  I don't think I've
>ever seen a construction like {cha'ben} (compare {cha'Hu'}), but I wouldn't
>flinch if I saw it.
>
>That said, we also have this comment from Okrand, in his discussion of {pIq}
>and {ret} in HolQeD 8:3:  "The phrase {cha' vatlh ben} would mean '200 years
>ago.'"  So the evidence is on your side if you use {ben} as a separate word.

Although they usually appear as timestamps, the nouns like {DaHjaj} and 
{ben} can form noun-noun phrases.  E.g.:

   DaHjaj gheD
   dish in a restaurant, "catch of the day" KGT

   cha'vatlh ben HIq vItlhutlh
   I will drink Two Century Old Ale. PK

Here {ben} is clearly part of the object -- so why couldn't it be part of a 
subject?  E.g.

   pa'wIjDaq 'oHtaH cha'vatlh ben HIq'e'.
   The Two Century Old Ale is in my quarters.

(Of course, the PK example could also theoretically be translated as "Two 
hundred years ago I drank liquor" but that would be nonsense.)



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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