tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 23 04:51:53 1996
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Re: Repetition
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: Repetition
- Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 07:52:53 -0500
qeSmIv HarghwI' writes:
>...As
>to the <-jaj>, I intended to express what an English speaker might have
>realized as "We must hope that many others may in the future be intelligent
>(enough to agree with you)." Please comment on my revised sentence:
>
> valjaj latlhpu' law' 'e' wItulnISchu'
I think you're misusing {-jaj}. It looks like you want the *other* common
(though not completely proper) meaning of the English "may" here -- "might."
{-jaj} expresses a wish or desire, and should sound like a toast or curse:
"May they lose their nostrils!" or "May the alliance continue."
English "may", in the sense your translation uses it, isn't quite perfect
grammar either. "May" should be reserved for indicating permission, not
possibility, but this misuse is so common that I can't invoke an absolute
rule against it. To indicate possibility, one really should use "might."
For that, Klingon has {chaq}. I believe your sentence ought to say:
{chaq [tugh] val latlhpu' 'e' wItulnISchu'}
(I've added {tugh} to indicate the "future" part of your meaning.)
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj