tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Dec 11 20:35:49 1994

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Re: KLBC: Blood calls for blood.



According to Kevin A. Geiselman, Knight Errant:
> 
> I am a <tlhingan Hol> novice, yet am called upon by my comrades of the
> IKV Dark Justice as the Klingon language expert.  In that capacity I need 
> to correct their mistakes while still learning the basics myself.
> 
> So, here's what I've gotten this week:
> 
> "Blood calls for blood."
> 
> The piece of paper my comrade handed me said: <'Iw pong 'IwvaD>

Well, on first pass, you know the word order is wrong because
nouns with Type 5 suffixes (except sometimes {-'e'} generally
go at the BEGINNING of the sentence. (See my post about word
order in Klingon sentences.) Given that correction, the
sentence is nearly useable:

'IwvaD pong 'Iw. 

Still, pong is not perhaps the best verb choice.

'IwvaD jach 'Iw.

It is rather idiomatic, full of symbolism, so it is again
perhaps not the best, but given a little poetic license, it
might do.

> Pretty horrible, right?  Well, here's my attempt.
> 
> <'Iw majachmeH 'Iw Suqmo'>
> "We call out for blood because they obtained blood."

Welllll...

> How did I do?

Not too good. No main verb. Both of your verbs have Type 9
suffixes, which make them both dependent. If you drop the
{-meH}, then it at least matches your English, since the
English does not reflect the {-meH} at all. Then, we return to
word order. TKD does not say anything about word order with the
verb suffix {-mo'}, but the NOUN with the suffix {-mo'} must
appear at the beginning of a sentence, and a VERB with the
suffix {-meH} must be placed at the beginning of a sentence,
and since both {-meH} and {-mo'} answer the question "Why?",
providing a context for the action of the main verb, evidence
is strong that a verb with {-mo'} should preceed the main verb.

You also have the first word 'Iw in the direct object position
in front of the verb jach with a prefix indicating that there
is no object. Again, please read my post about word order. This
was in that. So, my reworking of your sentence is something
like:

'IwHommaj Suqmo' chaH, 'IwHomchaj wIpoQnIS.

There is canon for the {-Hom} suffix meaning "some", I believe
as a food reference. "Because they have aquired some of our
blood, we must demand some of their blood."

> Lt.Cmdr. Kordite vestai-Tasighor
> Intelligence Officer, IKV Dark Justice, Klingon Assault Group
> qorDayt la'Hom (veStay-taSIghor)
> ghoqpIn, tlhwD ruv Hurgh, tlhingan ghom HIv
> 
> (PS: how's this, too?)

Titles? Well, Okrand is really vague on that. We're not even
sure if it is correct to call our beloved captain HoD Qanqor or
Qanqor HoD.

charghwI'
-- 

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