tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 08 19:12:46 2004
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Re: other person imperatives
From: "...Paul" <[email protected]>
> > In the case of wishes and hopes, those Finnish third-person imperatives
> > would make sense translated with {-jaj}, but as laws or statements of
what
> > must be, simple statements will do. Imagine a lawbook that says:
> >
> > tlhIngan naDHa'lu'ta'bogh ghImlu'.
> > A discommended Klingon will be exiled.
>
> I was just about to say the same, so I'll just clarify what I think you're
> pointing out -- the suffix /-lu'/ works well in this "third person
> imperative", perhaps with the addition of /-nIS/ to indicate a bit more of
> an imperative nature. Such as:
>
> may' law' QapnISlu' --> "One must win many battles."
>
> I think that covers the 'third person imperative' idea that was being
> described?
I don't mean to imply that {-lu'} is necessary for this; my example simply
contained one. (I'm not sure you meant to imply that I meant to imply that,
but I thought I'd make that clear!) It's easy enough to come up with a
"law" that has an explicit subject:
tlhIngan quvHa' ghIm yejquv.
The High Council will exile a dishonored Klingon.
The only difference between this "law" and a simple statement of fact is the
context in which it appears. Anyway, lucky for us Klingon doesn't really
have any kind of third-person imperative, so we don't have to worry about
exactly how to use it.
SuStel
Stardate 4106.7
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