tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 12 01:34:15 1994

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Re: tam poHvo'

According to Peter Garza:
> 
> > > ghay' cha', nI' DuSaQ poHvam

charghwI'vo':
> > nuqjatlh? Ummm...
> > As
> > close as I can make out, it says, "This time cries you,"...

Petervo': 
> Although, DuSaQ does mean "it cries you," it also means "school."  What
> I meant was, "This period of school time is (has been) long."  It's been
> long and busy semester.

charghwI'vo':
Ahhh! I get it. Sorry for the confusion. Perhaps it would have
been clearer as:
DuSaQDaq nI'lI' poHwIj
"At school, my time is (progressing toward a foreseeable end) long."
The locative suffix would have shoved me toward interpreting
the DuSaQ as a noun, and I suspect that it is YOUR time that
has been long, rather than the school's time that has been long.

Petervo':
> > > DuSaQ Doch neH jIvumlaH 'ach Monday Qav pom munuD ghojmoHwI'wI' (that
> > > probably came out strange, but I couldn't find "take a final")

charghwI'vo':
> > Yep. Mighty strange...

Petervo': 
> Again, DuSaQ in this case means school.  "I can only do school things,
> but Monday my teacher(s) will examine me for the last time (Qav pom)."
> I have my final final exam on Monday.

charghwI'vo':
In this case, "school things" needs a grammatical reason for
being in the sentence. The prefix {jI-} indicates that there is
no object for the verb. If you use {vI-} it might be a little
strange to have {DuSaQ Doch} as the object of {vIvumlaH}, but
the sentence would hold together much better.

The strangeness is that we can't assume that Klingons use the
word {Doch} with the full variety that English speakers use the
word "thing". They quite possibly only use it to refer to a
physical object. {Qu'mey} might be a better choice, saying that
you can only accomplish school tasks. 

DaH DuSaQ Qu'mey neH vIta'laH, 'ach qaSDI' "Monday" mutob
ghojmoHwI'wI'.

Given that {tob} means "test conclusively", that implies that
it is a final exam. Klingon again shows its efficiency.

Petervo':
> > > > > > chaq ghoS Hoghvammey jItlhabmoH > >

> Yeah, I switched the "-mey" and "-vam."  I fingured "ghoS
> Hoghmeyvam" as "the coming weeks," using "ghoS" as sort of an
> adjective.  the second part 
> should have been "jItlhabchoH," or "I will become free."  
> In total, this 
> was supposed to
mean, "Perhaps in the coming weeks I will be free."  

charghwI'vo':
chaq qasDI' Hoghmey puS jItlhabchoH.
I don't offer this in any spirit of showing off or criticising.
My intent is that you might find something of value in someone
else's solution to the expression you wished to make. "Perhaps
as soon as a few weeks happen, I change to be free."

> It seems that some of the confusion in this message was generated
> from the 
> lack of a "temporal locative" for lack of a better term.  
> Just how does 
> one say, "on Monday," "in the coming weeks," etc.  

charghwI'vo':
~mark, one of the grammarians on this list presented the use of
the verb {qaS} for this. With the various suffixes, it can be
quite inventively used to specify various kinds of time stamps.
As soon as something happens. Before something happens. While
something happens. It doesn't solve EVERYTHING relating to
time, but it is very useful much of the time.

charghwI'

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