tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 17 07:55:50 1995
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Re: HolQeD 4:3 p4 S7
According to Alan Anderson:
>
...
> The second part of the sentence confuses me a lot, though:
>
> {DujvamDaq 'op SuvwI' tu'lu'bogh po' law' tlhIngan yo' SuvwI' law' po' puS}
>
> "The {'op} warrior which one finds on this ship is more skilled than
> the many Klingon fleet's warrior[s]."
>
> First, what in the world is {'op}?! Second, it looks like {SuvwI' law'}
> is intended to mean "many of the warriors," and that doesn't seem right.
Remember that Klingon does not use articles like "the", so
while it is right to place them in the English translation in
order to make the sentence sound right, it is not ALWAYS right
to do so. If you drop "the" from your English translation, you
probably won't object to:
The {'op} warrior which one finds on this ship is more skilled
than many warriors of the Klingon fleet.
Unfortunately, I think this is one time when it would have been
better to be explicitly plural on the first SuvwI' because one
could extend the {tu'lu'} translation of "there is" to mean:
"There is a warrior on this ship who is more skilled than many
warriors of the Klingon fleet." That is not NEARLY as broad a
statement as the given English translation. I think Okrand
could have done better.
> >Also, is there prior canon evidence that the -bogh contruction in a
> >law'/puS comparison is valid, or is this the first confirmation that this
> >is allowed?
>
> The use of a pair of law'/puS constructions connected by {'ej} also
> seems to be new to canon. The construction seems officially to have
> the full privileges of a sentence.
I've always seen this as the case, though I see it as a special
sentence with a word order completely different from a "normal"
sentence. Much as English has a different word order for
questions than statements, Klingon has a different word order
for comparatives.
> -- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj
charghwI'
--
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