tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Nov 03 16:19:32 2011

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Beginner Story: nuq bop bom 'ay''a' wej

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

I think I've been convinced by the ubiquity of the so-called error, including the example illustrating the rule, that it is not an error, that it is the way the language it. It's exactly analogous to the French ce n'est pas being used were ce ne sont pas should be, and the same thing isn't unknown in English, "There's plenty of them around here." "There's five of them." "There's" is just easier to say than "There'r" I guess.
You know how when Germans learn English [hi Germans!] they use rules that the two languages once shared and produce verb forms that while not actually ungrammatical in English are marked because no native English speaker has used them for over a hundred years? I am now convinced that lutu'lu' is a hypercorrection like that. I might even stop using it. At least in dialogue.
We've discussed this in the past. There are a couple of possible explanations. One is that it's a fixed expression: just add tu'lu' to mean "there is/are." Another is that it's an example of the phenomenon described in KGT: "Common Errors: The Case of lu-."
I have a vague notion that lutu'lu' has appeared somewhere, but it's not in TKD or KGT, the only materials I have handy and searchable right now. 

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

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