tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 07 21:54:05 2011

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Re: mu'tlheghvam yIlughmoH

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

jatlh lojmIt tI'wI' nuv:

> Okrand once said that he was not clear on exactly how {SIv} should be
> used, with a glimmer in his eye as he mused on the irony of wondering
> about the word {SIv}. I personally would find the following Question
> As Object constructions acceptable, though they are not canon:
> 
> chay' mu' <<SIv>> lo'lu' 'e' vISIv.
> 
> Sov 'Iv 'e' vISIv. 
> 
> The verb {SIv} is special in this regard because it is not a verb of
> speech and it implies a continuous questioning without answering. So,
> I could see a question being the direct object of SIv, though I can't
> think of any other verb for which that makes sense. 

Actually, Okrand explained how to use {SIv} on the old MSN newsgroup:

   tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISIv "I wonder if you speak Klingon"
   (vISIv "I wonder it")

   The fourth example is weird from an English translation point of
   view, but it falls right in line in Klingon.  If the English
   translation matched the pattern of the other three sentences, it
   would be "I wonder that you speak Klingon."  In English, this means
   something like "I'm surprised that you speak Klingon" or "I don't
   understand how it can be that you speak Klingon," but this is not
   what the Klingon sentence means.  The Klingon sentence means
   something more like "I am curious about whether you speak Klingon."
   The clumsiness here is the English, not the Klingon.

-- 
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/

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