tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 20 16:14:39 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: poHmey
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC: poHmey
- Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 19:16:06 -0500
'etlhqengwI' writes:
>> {poH} doesn't refer to "what time it is". It refers to a "period of time".
>> The closest we have to "the time of day" is {rep} "hour".
>
>I'm not sure I understand this limitation on meaning. TKD, on page
>157 associates <poH> with time as a verb, as well as the simple noun
>form "time" and the form "period of time". The English-Klingon
>pages do not seem to place it with words like period or duration by
>themselves, but *do* place it with the simple word "time"
It's might be open to interpretation, but I believe that the way
the words are given in the English-Klingon side of TKD, the word
one is likely to be thinking of is given first, followed by the
true meaning of the Klingon term. Look at the Klingon-English
side of TKD: {poH} is simply "period of time", and {qIj} is given
as "be black". The "black, be black" in the E-K word list is so
that someone trying to say "black" will find it; I think that also
applies to "time, period of time" and other entries such as {vIH}
"move, be in motion".
>> [And it uses that "verb-suffix-indicates-indirect-object" construction
>> that I find so distasteful, but that's my problem, not yours.]
>
>I'm not at all sure I understand this. I am using no verb suffix
>that I know of.
HIvqa' veqlargh. I meant prefix, not suffix.
>The verb in this sentence is <ja'> with the
>imperitive *prefix* <HI> (you-me). The construction is a command
>intended to transalte as "tell me (the) time!" Am I missing
>something subtle?
No, you translated it correctly (according to the examples we have).
>Even if <rep> *is* required, wouldn't <rep HIja'> make sense? ("tell
>me (the) hour!")
Yes, it makes sense (according to the examples we have).
[It's just that I'd rather it be stated {jIHvaD rep yIja'} or simply
{rep yIja'}. The real object of "tell" here is "the hour"; "me" is
the beneficiary of the action, not its object. But as I said before,
that's not your problem.]
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj