tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 03 04:50:06 1996

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Why bother with pong?



ja' DloraH:
>>"I am an 'orqut" or "I am 'orqut", etc.....
>It works in other languages.
>"Hello, I'm Roger.

It probably works in Klingon too, but I'd rather not abuse the "to be"
meaning of pronouns too much.  Pronouns as verbs just don't feel like
they mean quite the same thing as the English (Spanish, French, etc.)
does.  {ghojwI' jIH} is "I am a student."  It seems like a categorizer,
not a statement of equivalance.  {ghojwI'vetlh jIH} "I am that student"
can be read as a categorizer also, just with a very small category.

The point that concerns me most is the assumed "a" or "the" before the
noun in the English translation.  Is it necessary?  I contend that it is,
and that "to be" in Klingon is not a simple copula.

-- ghunchu'wI'




Back to archive top level