tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 06 12:25:28 1997

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Re: KLBC: Power Klingon

On Stardate 97597.1 muHwI' wrote:
> ghItlh SuStel:
> 
> > Also, {maja'chuqjaj} really isn't used correctly.  He's said something
> which 
> > comes out more like "May it be so that we speak!"  
> 
> (from "The Grammarians Desk", page 53) 
> 
>                                                                    
[...]After
> 
>         all, not all uses of  {-jaj}  are for toasts  and the like.  
Consider
> this 
>         sentence from the opening dialogue of the tape: 
> 
>                                        {maja'chuqjaj} 
>                                        Can we talk?
> 
>                     This  is  just  daily  conversation,  not a toast or a
> piece of 
>         ritual.  This certainly supports  the notion that  there  are
>  perfectly 
>         mundane uses of {-jaj}, and it seems quite reasonable  to conclude
>         that these would folow normal grammar [...] etc...etc...
> 
> So, my question now is, did Qanqor change this thing, or what is about
> {maja'chuqjaj} ?

Krankor and I just happen to disagree, that's all.  Neither of us is 
authoritative.  He believes that the Terran was correctly using Klingon, while 
I believe he was not.

> > If he really just wanted to talk, he should have said {maja'chuq}.
> {maja'chuq} does just mean "we talk (to each other)". How can it mean "I 
want
> to talk" ?

Literally, "I want to talk" would be {maja'chuq vIneH}.

Klingon is a lot more dependant on context than English is.  Let me answer 
your question this way.  If I walked up to you out of the blue, pointed to a 
quiet corner, and said {maja'chuq}, you'd understand exactly what I meant, 
right?  That's how Klingon works.  We've seen it before.  For example, {Ha'!  
DaH matlhutlh}, translated as "Let us go get a drink."

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97598.4

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