tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 22 07:34:41 2008
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Re: Klingon WOTD: SanID (number)
Jonathan Webley:
> > In TKD, {maH}, {vatlh}, {SaD} and {SanID} are described as "special
> > number-forming elements", that is suffixes. The implication is that
> > they are not words in their own right. For example "Ten" is translated
> > as {wa'maH} and not {maH}.
TKD 53: Higher numbers are formed by adding special number-forming
elements to the basic set of numbers (1-9). Thus {wa'maH} "ten" consists of
{wa'} "one" plus the number-forming element for "ten", {maH}.
> > But then there seem to be a few examples where they appear as words...
> > Confused?
Indeed. What examples? Are you thinking of the phrases {vatlh DIS poH}
and {netlh DIS poH} mentioned in HQ 8.3:
With longer time periods, such as a century ({vatlh DIS poH}), or a
period of 10,000 years (myriad, perhaps) ({netlh DIS poH}), the words
{ret} or {pIq} may be used in place of {poH}, e.g., {cha' vatlh DIS poH}
"two centuries", but {cha' vatlh DIS ret} "two centuries ago". The
phrase {cha' vatlh ben} would mean "200 years ago". The choice of
construction depends on what is being emphasized: in this case, the
total number of centuries (two) or the total number of years (200).
(Is {SaD DIS poH} "millennium" also mentioned in that HolQeD article? It's
not in my notes.)
Note that Okrand occasionally writes the number-forming element separately
from the basic number instead of one word:
qaStaHvIS wa' ram loS SaD Hugh SIjlaH qetbogh loD
4,000 throats may be cut in one night by a running man. TKD
I'm not sure if that means anything other than a spelling variant.
> > Do these words have plurals? How would we say "thousands of things"?
AFAIK no number-forming element has been used with a plural suffix.
Doq wrote:
>"A Klingon may be inaccurate, but he is NEVER approximate!"
>
>A Klingon would not say, "Thousands of things". He would say "Four
>thousand things" and not care if he were off by a few thousand.
The only method I can think of is that you might be able to use {puS} "be
few" or the noun {'op} "some, an unknown or unspecified quantity" to modify
the entire phrase {wa'SaD Doch} "one-thousand things" (considered as a
group): e.g. {wa'SaD Doch puS} "a few <one-thousand things>" or {'op
wa'SaD Doch} "some <one-thousand things>". But these sound extremely
awkward to my anglophone ear.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons