tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 15 07:23:27 1997

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Re: KLBC: tea for two



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>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 01:56:49 -0800
>From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected]>
>
>Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
>> >From: Thornton Rose <[email protected]>
>> >Now, sometimes I just start with the question "What kind of tea
>> >do you want?", because I know the answer is going to be "yes".
>> >In tlhIngan Hol I want to say:
>> >   nuq Dargh DaneH?
>>
>> [...] "nuq Dargh DaneH" is asking "What's tea do you want?"
>> or "You want the tea of what?"  Not quite what you mean either.
>
>It does seem to work in some cases:
>
>  {nuq Dargh?  _India_ Dargh.}
>  {nuq Dargh?  _rosebud_ Dargh.}

Agreed.  I rather like using "'Iv" or "nuq" in these kinds of constructions
("'Iv Duj vIlegh?"/"whose ship do I see?")  SuStel says that "nuq" or "'Iv"
may have to stand for an entire subject or object; I am not sure I buy
that.  But they do need to stand for whole noun phrases.

>But it wouldn't do for `black tea', `green tea', `iced tea', `sour tea'.
>I wonder if there is an interrogative verb (`(be) of what kind') sitting
>in store in Maltz's head.  As in *{kix Dargh?} `What kind is the tea?',
>*{Dargh kix DaneH?} `What kind of tea do you want?'.  (Using non-Klingon
>letters for the non-word, lest I be accused of making a *proposal* for
>`filling a gap' in Klingon, which I'm not.)

Wise.  Not so much for "filling the gap" but... well, you know the story of
'I', right? :)  (http://www.kli.org/cgi-bin/mfs/1996/Aug96/0655.html).  We
have enough confusion without that. :)  Hee, an interrogative verb would be
cool.  Not unheard of in languages, but nicely unusual.

~mark

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