tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 26 15:37:27 1996
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Re: 'a'
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: 'a'
- Date: Sun, 26 May 1996 17:40:46 -0500
Scott McCool writes:
>I am new at this, and I was wondering if 'a' is used simply as an
>augmenative suffix. For instance: if chop means to bite, shouldn't
>chop'a' be to bite hard? But according to the useful expressions part of
>the klingon dictionary, it means "Does it bite?" What gives?
You're getting confused by the identical spelling of two different suffixes.
There is a noun suffix {-'a'} (see TKD 3.3.1). When it is applied to a noun,
it augments the meaning of the noun. There is also a *verb* suffix {-'a'}
(see TKD 4.2.9). When it is applied to a verb, it turns the sentence into a
yes/no question. These two suffixes are totally unrelated to one another.
Verb suffixes can not be put on nouns, and noun suffixes can not be put on
verbs.
To translate "bite hard", you can use the verb suffix {-qu'} (see TKD 4.3).
This suffix emphasizes what it follows. It's often translated "really" or
"very".
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj