tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 08 14:28:20 2004

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Re: Re: mu'qaDmey tIQ (was:Re: imperative + -jaj)

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

DloraH:
> >But the first one, I picture someone is killed, only once, but his body is
> >chopped into a thousand pieces, and a piece is put into each room. Not
> >quite as glorious.

Christoph:
>DaH, porghvo''e' lojpu'mo' qa', 'oH SaH pagh.
>Now, that the spirit(soul) is gone from the body, no one cares about it(the
>body) anymore.

For "now that" use {-DI'} "as soon as, when"; for "any more" use {-taH} 
"continuous".

We know that Klingons refer to the spirit as escaping the body at death:

   HeghDI' SuvwI' nargh SuvwI' qa'.
   When a warrior dies, his spirit escapes. TKW

   narghbe'chugh SuvwI' qa' taH may'.
   If the warrior's spirit has not escaped, the battle is still going on. TKW

and there's the idiom from KGT:

   ghe'torvo' narghDI' qa'pu'
   when spirits escape from Gre'thor

>I am not sure about the -'e'- in there, but I saw no other way to make sure
>the -'oH- will be seen as refering to -porghvo'-.

Sometimes the simplest solution is to repeat the noun in both clauses:

   porghvo' narghDI' qa', porgh SaHtaH pagh.

This isn't as awkward in Klingon as it is in English.  But if you want you 
could drop the first {porgh}, since {nargh qa'} refers to dying:

   narghDI' qa', porgh SaHtaH pagh.

Unless you're talking about Gre'thor, what else would the warrior's {qa'} 
escape from?

>Also, is -loj- acceptable here? -ghoS- didn't seem fitting.

{loj} "be all gone" - I'd forgotten this verb.  I don't think we've ever 
seen this one used before, but my suspicion is that it's used for things 
like fuel (though we do have {natlh} "use up" for that) or bloodwine.

We also have {Dach} "be absent" vs. {SaH} "be present".  I like these last 
two, as you can make a play on words with {SaH} "care for":

   porghDaq DachDI' qa', porgh SaHtaH pagh.

or even more concisely:

   DachDI' qa', porgh SaH pagh.

I like these as there's another bit of word play with {porgh} and {pagh}.

>(Note: I'm not sure if the reply is fitting at all, as I may have
>misinterpreted DloraH's reply - but I want to know how bad my sentence is,
>anyway ;-)

Since you asked... <g>



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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