tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 11 09:48:33 2006

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RE: walk two miles

DloraH ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

When I do it, if I'm refering to the destination I'm getting to I use:
cha' qelI'qam vIleng
"I traveled to a point 2 kelicams away."
If I'm refering to the journey itself, the adventure of getting there, I
use:
cha' qelI'qamDaq jIleng
"I traveled along a length of 2 kelicams."


DloraH


> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] 
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steven Boozer
> Sent: Wednesday, 11 January, 2006 10:30
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: walk two miles
> 
> Quvar:
> > >>how would I say that that I traveled or walked a specific 
> distance,
> > >>e.g. two miles? Does it make sense to say {cha' qelI'qam jIleng}??
> 
> Voragh:
> > >Quvar asks a very good question.  My first inclination is 
> to do it exactly
> > >the way he did, with {cha' qelI'qam} as a sort of adverbial stamp.
> 
> QeS:
> >{vIleng}. But for my part, I think this is reasonable.
> 
> Voragh:
> > >I'm not sure about using {vI-}.  The object of {leng} is a 
> location, with
> > >or without {-Daq}.  In this it works like {ghoS}:
> 
> QeS:
> >Ah. Yes, I had forgotten. Nevertheless, *{cha' qelI'qam 
> jIleng} is not just
> >semantically insensible, but out-and-out ungrammatical: in 
> that sentence,
> >per Okrand's interview which you cite, {cha' qelI'qam} would have no
> >function in the sentence when the prefix {jI-} is used.
> 
> Even as an indirect indication of time, you need an 
> subordinate clause:
> 
>      qaStaHvIS cha' rep jIleng.
>      I travelled for two hours.
> 
>    ? [VERB]taHvIS cha' qelI'qam jIleng.
>      I travelled for two kellicams.
>      I travelled during two kellicams.
> 
> Voragh:
> > >But on second thought I wonder if we need a verb with 
> {-taHVIS}.  But what
> > >verb?  Perhaps {qaS} "occur, happen"? Hmm... Can a 
> distance occur in 
> > Klingon?
> > >
> > >   ? qaStaHvIS cha' qelI'qam jIleng.
> > >
> > >Although {cha' qelI'qam} is measuring how far you walked, 
> in effect you're
> > >using it to say how long you walked: i.e. for (the time it 
> took to travel)
> > >two kellicams.
> 
> >(I don't think {qaS} is appropriate for use with a spatial noun.)
> 
> Probably not.  But then we come back to the question of what 
> verb can be 
> used, if any.
> 
> Using {cha' qelI'qam} as the object of {vIleng} might work 
> only if Klingons 
> see it as referring to an unnamed place or point two 
> kellicams away, not as 
> a two kellicam stretch of distance.  Something similar to English "I 
> travelled the two miles" (i.e. the previously mentioned 
> distance to my 
> previously mentioned destination) perhaps?
> 
> Voragh:
> > >and Okrand used {leng} as an example in HolQeD 12/1998:
> >  ...
> > >yuQDaq jIleng
> > >I roam (around/about) on the planet. (HQ [12/1998])
> 
> QeS:
> >Hmmm... so paralleling this, what about ??{cha' qelI'qamDaq 
> jIleng} "I
> >travel on two kellicams"?
> 
> More likely something like "I travelled (with)in the two 
> kellicam area" 
> (e.g. a two kellicam wide neutral zone along a border) -- if it means 
> anything at all.
> 
> Another idea struck me:  Perhaps you break it into two 
> clauses using the 
> distance verbs {Hop} "be remote, be far" and {Sum} "be near":
> 
>    ? Daqvam vIleng;  cha' qelI'qam Hop.
>      I went to this place; it was 2 kellicams distant.
> 
>    ? cha' qelI'qam Hopbogh Daq'e' vIleng.
>      I travelled to a place 2 kellicams away.
> 
> Unfortunately neither {Hop} nor {Sum} has been used with a specified 
> distance, only generally:
> 
>    Sum Daqmeyvam, tera'ngan
>    These places are nearby, Terran. CK
> 
>    Hop jabwI'.
>    The waiter is far from me right now. (HQ 12/1998)
> 
>    SoHDaq Sum raS
>    You are near the table. (HQ 12/1998)
> 
>    qagh largh SuvwI' ghung.  Sum qagh 'e' Sov.
>    The hungry warrior smells the gagh. He/she knows the gagh 
> is nearby. (HQ 
> 12/1998)
> 
> (Okrand discusses the question of deixis in more detail in HolQeD 
> 12/1998:9-10 where he stresses, yet again, that "Context is 
> critical.")
> 
> Again, such a simple question - How do we refer to distances? 
> - may need to 
> be referred to Maltz.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Voragh
> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
> 
> 
> 
>

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