tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 14 08:46:28 1993
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Archaic Syntax ??
>From: [email protected]
>Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 00:35:00 -0400 (EDT)
>Yesterday I heard something about how Okrand made a fuss about pointing
>out to us that in all phrases using -jaj ('IwlIj jachjaj) the subject
>appears first. In phrases that have passed down from centuries ago,
>this may be so; maybe old Klingon syntax put the verb last. Could it
>have been Obj.-Subj.-Vb.?
I was discussing this very topic with Glen Proechel (of the KLCamp) on the
phone last night. He said he suspected that "-jaj" *always* puts the
subject before the verb. I hope he's wrong, and that it's merely a poetic
construction. The "taHjaj boq" you mention supprts this notion, which is
good (for me, anyway).
I did find a sentence supporting your thesis in the new tape. It's a
greeting to be given at the Rite of Ascension to the new adult. It is
translated as "May the gall of the vanquished fill your hands."
jagh lucharghlu'ta'bogh ?HuH ghopDu'lIj lungaSjaj.
I write ?HuH with a question mark since that's what it sounds like, but the
word doesn't exist in our dictionaries, nor does any similar-sounding word
that I could find that fits, nor does any word for "gall". I presume it's
a new word we haven't heard (there are one or two in the tape; I believe
"luSpet" is used for "black hole"; I could find neither component).
OBTW, a typo in my previous post: the sentence about Kahless living in you
should have started with "SoHDaq", not "SoH".
~mark