tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 25 09:20:44 2009
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
How {wanI'} gets used
Christopher Doty:
>English is "He discovered what which was unseen" and the Klingon is
><leghbe'lu'wI' tu' ghaH>. Doesn't this mean "He found the unseer"?
>Ought it not be <leghbe'lu'ghach> or <leghbe'lu'bogh wanI'>? Or is
>the passive/inverse meaning of -lu' take to its extreme here?
>
>(Sidenote: is this how wanI' gets used? I've seen it here and in
>Gigamesh, but it doesn't make sense with the phenomenon translation.)
{wanI'} "phenomenon, event, occurrence" in canon:
wanI' ramqu'
a very unimportant event TKD
naDev qaS wanI' ramqu'
There's nothing happening here. TKD
Heghlu'DI' mobbe'lu'chugh QaQqu' Hegh wanI'
Death is an experience best shared. TKW
Okrand discusses events and the ways of ending them in HolQeD:
HQ 12.2 (p.8): Another verb, {ghang}, is used to express the idea of a premature ending. If, using the same examples, the voyage is cut short or the song is interrupted before the final part is sung [...] When an event over which one has some control ends (one can't cause a month to end), a different verb is used: {van}. This would apply to such things as voyages, battles, plays, operas, stories, and songs. Here, the event (the voyage, the song) doesn't end; the participant in the event or the perpetrator of the event ends it. [...] There is a difference between the end of the performance of a song or opera or play, indicated by making use of the verbs {van} and {ghang}, and the ending, or final portion, of a song or opera or play itself.
Cf. {ghu'} "situation":
DopDaq qul yIchenmoH QobDI' ghu'
Set fire on the side when there is danger.
(lit. "when the situation is dangerous") PK
ghu'maj Dayajbe'law', Sa'.
[You don't seem to grasp our situation, General. (novel)] ST6
Cf. also {Dotlh} status, {poH} period of time; cf. also idiomatic {Soj} "matter, concern, affair".
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons