tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 09 10:07:11 1994

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Re: Qaghqoq



jatlh Qanqor:
>Personally, my own usage would be contextual; in my mind, qoH ghaH
>is much more strongly derogatory.  Dogh, to me, implies that, right
>now, at present, he's acting foolish, whereas qoH ghaH says something
>fundamental about his nature.  It implies:  he is a fool, he's
>always been a fool, he'll always be a fool.  But this is just my
>take, not proven fact.

'e' vIQoch

Klingon does not have any sort of tense. Saying "He is foolish" in English
*would* imply that he is acting like a fool right now, and may not generally
act that way all the time, but in Klingon {Dogh} means "he/she/it
is/was/will-always-be foolish".

With aspect, we can only interpret an action's state in reference to any
chronological frame of reference, be it now, an hour ago, thirty centuries
from now, or last week. The only thing Klingon aspect does is indicate if an
action is completed or in the process of occuring, and also whether performed
intentionally or unintentionally. For example, {Doghpu'/Doghta'} means he has
just made a fool of himself. {DoghtaH/DoghlI'} means he is in the process of
doing so. In either of those cases, it is not as derogatory as saying that he
is a fool in general, in which case the tenseless {Dogh} should suffice.


Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos



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