tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 18 05:28:54 1995
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Re: taghqIj concedes defeat! :)
According to Matt Treyvaud:
...
> But how would it be if I said:
>
> qaStaHvIS poHvam, pa' jIHbe'
>
> Using -vam not meaning 'This period of time near me as we speak' but
> 'This period of time that we were just talking about'. Of course, this
> sentence could only be used if a time -had- been mentioned, so it's not
> as usable. Just wondering about the use of -vam.
{-vam} is exactly as spacially oriented as {-vetlh}. If one is
inappropriate, then so is the other. Meanwhile, I will not
pretend to say with absolute authority that I'm right here.
Okrand has given no difinitive example positive or negative on
this. Meanwhile, my ability to second guess Okrand's intent has
a relatively good track record.
Okrand can easily decide one way or the other and whatever
opinions we have would become forgotten dust. The reason I
choose to consider {-vetlh} and {-vam} to refer to space and
not time is that Okrand never said they could refer to time,
and if they DIDN'T, then Klingon would be one step more foreign
to English. Add that as temporal references, they are
unnecessary. We can work around the lack of this idiom without
great effort, so until Okrand says we CAN use these suffixes on
time references, why bother?
Recognize that what you are trying to say as "This time",
meaning the time to which the conversation has been referring,
can easily be described as "this event". You may consider this
to be a subtle difference, but to me it is far more accurate.
An event implies a specific time AND a specific PLACE, as well
as specific action and specific participants. Because of the
spacial component of an event, it seems perfectly appropriate
to use {-vetlh} or {-vam} to your heart's content. {ghu'} and
{wanI'} are very useful nouns for this sort of casting.
> Another thing: I have started a tlhIngan section on my home page, and I
> would appreciate input. Not on the content, because I doubt that the
> serious tlhIngans out there will appreciate the silliness, but on the
> grammatical correctness. The address ought to be just down there in my .sig
I tried, but could not get there this morning.
> taghqIj
>
> C /\ T
> F /()\ C ...CM is ATMA!
> C /____\ ...http://ariel.its.unimelb.edu.au/~cthulhu/say-it.html
> GANTA
charghwI'
--
\___
o_/ \
<\__,\
"> | Get a grip.
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