tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 07 13:08:30 2004

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Re: KLBC {X-Hom X X-'a'}

De'vID jonwI' ([email protected]) 

QeS lagh:
>>Conjoined verbs may be interpreted as a
>>sequence, IIRC; there's a sentence in TKW, {bogh tlhInganpu', SuvwI'pu' 
>>moj,
>>Hegh} "Klingons are born, live as warriors, then die" (p.5) that shows 
>>this.
>>Might conjoined nouns provide a similar sort of sequence? Thus, 
>>??{verengan
>>Human tlhIngan HoH} "He kills a Ferengi, a human, then a Klingon".
>>...
>>but the grammar and translation of {beyHom bey bey'a'} does seem to 
>>indicate
>>a sequence to me

But there's no relationship between <vera'ngan>, <Human>, and <tlhIngan>
the way there is with <beyHom>, <bey>, <bey'a'>.  Now, if you had said
<jaghHom jagh jagh'a' HoH>, I would understand that as a poetic way of
saying "He killed all his enemies" (as might occur in a Klingon poem,
perhaps _The Fall of Kang_ by G'Trok).  In fact, I rather like that.  Along
the same vein as translating <beyHom bey bey'a'> as "crescendo" (i.e.
voices increasing in loudness), <jaghHom jagh jagh'a'> might be waves of
ever-more-difficult/hated enemies, such as one encounters in a video game.

But as others have said, there's no indication that this is a common
structure that can be used willy-nilly.

DloraH:
>Going back to [HIvje'Hom HIvje' HIvje''a'], with the canon we have we 
>cannot
>know for sure how the XHom-X-X'a' works; but with the case of [HIvje'Hom 
>HIvje'
>HIvje''a'], -Hom and -'a' don't always express size.  A HIvje'Hom could be 
>a
>large paper cup, a HIvje''a' could be a small fancy gold trimmed cup for 
>the
>king; we don't know.  Maybe such a formula, when used, would (temporarily)
>override those other meanings and would express the "ever-increasing" idea,
>recognized by the [je] or lack of.

When I read <HIvje'Hom HIvje' HIvje''a'> the image that comes to mind
is the scene near the end of the movie _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_,
when they've entered the sanctuary and found a table full of goblets and
chalices of all sizes and shapes (one of which was supposed to be the Holy
Grail).  It was not necessarily size or even fanciness that distinguished
the cups, and in fact, the Holy Grail <HIvje''a' quv> turned out to be
a small, plain-looking cup, the least fancy or notable of all the cups
there.

--
De'vID

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