tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 21 03:10:59 1994

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Re: Klinpack. Small correction.



According to Mark E. Shoulson:
> 
> 
> >  VERB PREFIXES                 
> >PREFIX-VERB-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
> >     \ROVER/
> 
> >This is the verbal structure.  All suffixes are ALWAYS 
> >put in the order they come in.
> 
> Looks to me like your diagram says that rover suffixes can come before the
> verb!  Rovers can come anywhere *after* the verb, except after a type 9
> suffix (except, of course, that two of the rovers, -Qo' and -Ha', don't
> really rove, but are always immediately after the verb).

Ummm. Looks like our honorable gramarian has fallen for the
same error I have made in the past. {-Qo'} is the last
non-type-9 suffix. It does not follow the same rule as {-Ha'}.
That's why I generally tend to tell people that rovers are best
taken individually.

There are only four that we know of. Two (-qu' and -be') go
anywhere among the verbal suffixes and modify the preceeding
suffix or the verb itself, if there are no interceding
suffixes. One (-Ha') always follows the verb itself, and so is
really a type 0.5 suffix (heh, heh).  One (-Qo') follows every
other type except type 9, so it is really a type 8.5 suffix
(heh, heh).

The main point is that there are only four and the rules
binding the four are so weak as to make it confusing to even
consider them to be of one class. It is better to just take
each one individually. 

Otherwise, we are tempted to break them into two classes: The
roving rovers (-be' and -qu') and the pseudo-rovers that always
immediately follow the verb (-Ha' and -Qo'). Unfortunately,
{-Qo'} does not follow the only rule that binds it with {-Ha'},
so we often misremember it as if it did. Like ~mark just did.

It's so rare I ever get to catch ~mark make an error of any
kind, while I do not savor it (as he is my friend), I DO
consider it to be an accomplishment. This guy is hard to catch
making mistakes because he so rarely makes them (while *I*, on
the other hand, chant {HIvqa' veqlargh} like some kind of
montra).

charghwI'



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