tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 11 06:48:58 2006

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Re: KLBC: Translating Dilbert

Terrence Donnelly ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

As for {SoH}: I'd have no trouble accepting {SoH'a'}
(implying it's short for {ghotvetlh SoH'a'?), on
the other hand, I have no trouble accepting intonation
alone as marking it as a question.  Klingon isn't 
lojban and Klingons aren't computers, so I doubt that
they need the question explicitly marked in the
grammar
in every instance.  Actually,we know for a fact that
Klingons use intonation: in Clipped Klingon, lots of
grammatical information is lost, and in situations
like battles where you would expect unambiguity to be
essential. If they're not using intonation to make up
for the lack of grammatical markings, I don't know
what they're using.  As for the question speech stream
not being encoded in the text anymore, of course it
is: that's what the "?" is for.  True, we don't
know the intonation patterns of Klingons, although
the movies and TV shows would lead us to believe they
are the same as English 8+), but whatever the question
intonation is, the "?" is sufficient to alert the
reader to apply it.

As for {luneH}: although we don't have canon examples 
of this, it seems easy enough to make a case for it:
1. We know that {neH} used verbally takes the proper
prefix in every other case: {DalaD vIneH} "I want
you to read it"
2. I have always assumed that {'e'} is a singular
pronoun, so for example {paqmey laD 'e' lutIv} "They 
enjoy reading books" (not just {tIv}).
3. I believe that {neH} continues to obey these rules
even when {'e'} drops out, so {Sov luneH}. 

As for why {'e'} drops out: I believe it is on its 
way to becoming a suffix like {-qang} or {-rup}, but
until it does, it will obey the rules of proper
verbal grammar.  When Klingons do start saying
{Sov neH}, it will be first considered slang and
incorrect, and it will take several generations for
it to become standard. It will simultaneously be
migrating to the proper verb suffix slot, to 
disambiguate the meaning of "want" from the adverb
{neH} 'merely'.  But we've long ago established that
since none of us are native speakers, we're not
allowed to carry out that kind of evolution!

-- ter'eS

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