tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 02 18:20:41 1995
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Re: KLBC: Present tense of verbs
On Tue, 2 May 1995, Bryce Platt wrote:
> OK, next of question for our esteemed BG (BGwI'qaH??)
Perhaps you can say {taghwI'pu' pabpo'wI'ma' quv} (our honored Beginners'
Grammarian). {{;-)
> While most verbs have as part of their translation some form of the verb "to
> be" (I 'am' writing, he 'is' sitting, whatever), what is the thlIngan Hol
> word for the infintive "to be"? I don't find this in the TKD (2ed.)
Sec. 6.3. states, "There is no verb corresponding to 'to be' in Klingon."
Klingon has several different ways of expressing "to be".
1. Some verbs express the idea "to be X". (When X is a state or quality)
qan SoSnI'wI'. My grandmother is old.
qur verenganpu'. Ferengis are greedy.
2. Pronouns mean "to be X" when they follow a noun. (When X is a noun)
nuH 'oH. It is a weapon.
tlhInganpu' maH. We are Klingons.
puchpa'Daq chaH. They are in the bathroom.
3. When you want to say, "X is Y" (where X & Y are both nouns), Klingon
uses the formula: {Y (pronoun) X'e'}.
qoH ghaH HoD'e'. The captain is a fool.
tejpu' chaH be'pu'vetlh'e'. Those women are scientists.
may'DujDaq bIH yIHpu''e'. The tribbles are on the battle cruiser.
> Does tlhIngan Hol even have such a beast? (My gut feeling is yes, I mean,
> how else is Hamlet to make his infamous declaration of existance? Somehow
> (yIn, yInbe' qoj)
> doesn't seem adequate enough.)
This is the story I heard: When Okrand was consulted on ST6 on how to
say, "To be or not to be," he came up with {yIn pagh yInbe'}.
Christopher Plummer, the actor who plays General Chang remarked that
{yIn} didn't sound "Klingon enough". So Okrand created the verb {taH}
on the spot. So now we have {taH pagh taHbe'.}
> Also, did Okrand *really* mean to make the pairs of conjunctions mirror
> images of each other (je 'ej joq qoj )?
I'm sure it's not a just a coinsidence.
> targhthluH
yoDtargh