tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jul 03 00:48:39 1993

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Re: Mandatory Self-introduction



vIghItlhpu':

> rkk-vaD:
> "Hesse"vo' SoHtaH qar'a'

tlhob holmes/mughlaw'wI':

> marqem-vaD
> What does the noun qar mean?  --mughlaw'wI'

qar is not a noun but a verb, meaning "be accurate".  This use is
documented in the Addendum, sect. 6.4 (p. 179), so if you have
only the 1st edn. of TKD you don't have the reference:

     Tag questions (ending a statement with a question such as
     "right?" or "isn't that so?") are foremed by using the verb
     gar [obviously a typo for qar -- marqem] _be accurate_ plus
     the suffix -'a' _interrogative_.  This verb either follows
     the verb or else comes at the end of the sentence.

My message to rkk (Kloko) was a question: "You're from Hesse,
aren't you?"  (His German text had used a tag-question word,
"gel", which is distinctive of the Hessian dialect.)

     "Hesse" - vo'       SoH - taH           qar - 'a'
      Hesse   from       you  [continuous]  accurate [question]

Kloko translates it as "From Hesse, are-you-being accurate?",
which is incorrect.  Perhaps he looked up qar in the Addendum
vocabulary but overlooked the grammatical entry referred to
above.

- marqem

                         Mark A. Mandel 
    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 
  320 Nevada St. :  Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : [email protected]



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