tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 03 07:48:59 1995

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Re: jIlIH(')egh, etc.

jej'QIbvaD* ghItlh ghunchu'wI':
 >>>>
>"jej'QIb" jIH.

<jej'QIb> 'oH nuq? 
A pronoun being used to mean "to be" does not mean "is the same as".
It can mean either "is a member of a group" or "is in a location".
You have said "I am *a* {jej'QIb}", not "I am {jej'QIb}." 
 <<<<

jIQoch.  While the examples Okrand gives in TKD 6.3 all fit into those two
categories, to my mind the way jej'QIb is using the construction fits both
the letter and the sense of the section.  Imagine the following exchange:

  (mangvaD) bu': HoDlI' vay'?
  (bu' 'o'Daq**) HoD: HoDDaj jIH.  nuqneH?

"HoDDaj" is a noun that refers to only one "thing" in the universe: the
soldier's captain.  The captain's statement says, "I am [that thing]": "I am
his captain."

As a name, jej'QIb is a noun that refers to only one "thing" in the
universe: the person named jej'QIb.  jej'QIb said, "I am [that thing]": "I am
jej'QIb."  I find nothing to criticize in that sentence.

* The Klingon glottal stop (written as apostrophe) can't come between j
and Q in Klingon words, and would barely be perceptible (if at all) there. 
I would suggest that jej'QIb drop that letter from the name.  (Until he or
she does, though, pong'e' lo'bogh 'oHbej pongDaj'e'.)

** "bu' 'o'" is the way I say "behind the sergeant".  TKD gives us no
words for "area in front of" and "area behind", but we do have the naval
terms "'et" 'fore' and "'o'" 'aft', meaning the front and rear regions of a
ship.  I have pressed these words into more general service -- or maybe
they ARE general, and are just translated with these naval words in
English because that's how Okrand first happened to elicit them from
Maltz.  When plowing through a crowded hallway I am apt to growl
"'etwIjvo'!", and it doesn't seem to matter whether people understand the
language or not; they get out of the way.  [But in light of recent
revelations about the use of area-nouns with pronouns, perhaps "jIH
'etvo'" would be more correct.]

- tlhIngan veQbeq marqem la'Hom 
  Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'! 

                         Mark A. Mandel 
    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 
  320 Nevada St. :  Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : [email protected]

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