tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 10 14:12:27 1994
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: Another Dutch introduction
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:49:45 EDT
>Welcome, Ruud.
>According to [email protected]:
>> Dun wa'Hu' vIHarbej
>>
>> loD'a' jIHpu' 'ach pay' loDHom jIhchoH
>I would recommend either dropping the {-pu'} or replacing
>{'ach} with {'ej}. That means either, "I am an important man,
>but suddenly I change to be an unimportant man," or "I had been
>an important man and suddently I became an unimportant man."
>This does not sound right in a literal English translation, but
>the point is that {-pu'} implies that the act of the verb is
>complete and does not continue. Also, realize that {-'a'} and
>{-Hom} do not exactly map to "important" and "unimportant, but
>the words suit this example.
Um, charghwI'; don't forget that loDHom is an entry in the dictionary unto
itself, having been lexicalized as "boy." This may or may not be what was
intended, but it';it's certainly the case that I don't think "unimportant
man" when I see "loDHom" (outside of, say, poetry). Importance in a person
isn't quite the same sense of importance you mean to carry with "-'a'"
either, I think, if you see what I mean.
~mark