tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 11 11:45:04 1996
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"Dochvam nuq?" nuQwI' Doch
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: "Dochvam nuq?" nuQwI' Doch
- Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 14:44:24 -0500
Speers contemplates:
>There's also /Dochvam nuq/, used repeatedly in CK. Only way to slice
>this is with /nuq/ as a verb. Perhaps it's not conclusive evidence, but
>it's corroborating.
nuq as a verb is pretty safe. It also looks nice in light of the other
"be"-less languages out there that do something similar with their "what"'s.
Same goes for "'Iv".
[...]
>Hmm, assuming them as pronouns-as-verbs, could one say /Duj 'Iv/ for
>"whose ship"? Because if we'll admit /Duj nuq/ for "which ship", we're
>stuck with /Duj 'Iv/ as well. Maybe that's a good thing; but it sounds
>ill-formed to my tender ear.
'Iv Duj DatemHa'pu', qechvetlh jum DaQubDI'?
If we feel there's enough of a need to fill in a gap with "Doch latlh", "Doch
Hoch", and in some circles "Doch vay'", it's not a far cry to find
opportunities to say "Doch nuq" for "what thing?" or "thing of what?".
>Wow, let's keep going. Will we admit /wanI' ghorgh/, /meq qatlh/, and
>/Daq nuqDaq/ as well? Granted, it's hard to imagine what the English
>counterparts would be, but they'd be *syntactically* correct in Klingon
>(if question words as a category can function as pronouns-as-verbs). The
>question remains to whether they'd make any semantic sense.
ghorgh, qatlh, etc., do not function as pronouns in the first place. I would
tend to oppose {meq qatlh} and such. And X nuqDaq is just as permissible as X
nuq, depending on your sect.
>Of course, the status of the question words still needs to be addressed,
>but it's interesting to speculate.
That's one thing about Hamlet. We had opportunities to put these
'experiments' to the test. I can't help thinking that that's the single most
important reason to do such projects, as an advantage over the brief, simple
wordtrains that inkle thru the list, not really breaking any ground. But if
it's idleness you crave --- Fekl'hr taunt you until you have a change of
attitude!
>--Holtej
Guido