tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 16 11:18:41 1996
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Re: Dr Okrand Speaks -- ben
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dr Okrand Speaks -- ben
- Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 14:18:18 -0500 ()
- Priority: NORMAL
On Mon, 16 Dec 1996 10:22:06 -0800 Alan Anderson
<[email protected]> wrote:
> ja' Okrand quv:
> > "I am 40 years old" would be expressed as:
> > loSmaH ben jIboghpu'
>
> {-pu'}?! I'd like to know why the perfective is appropriate here.
> There are a couple of weaselish arguments I could come up with, but
> this seems to me like a misapplication of perfective.
>
> -- ghunchu'wI'
Klingons are not approximate, right? So if today is my
42nd birthday, I would say, {loSmaH cha' ben jIbogh.} Tomorrow,
and 363 days after that, I'll say {loSmaH cha' ben jIboghpu'.}
Get it?
At least we do get to see that {ben} is a word and not a number
element. We say {wa'Hu'}, but we don't say *{wa'ben}*. We say
{wa' ben}.
charghwI'