tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 10 11:59:19 1997
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Re: We are klingons
- From: Mark Mandel <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: We are klingons
- Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 15:01:25 -0500
lI' tlhIngan puS:
<<<
From: "Eduardo Fonseca" <[email protected]>
tlhIngan maH (TKW pg 03)
(we are klingons!)
This is one of most popular dictums I heard . But, is it right, or
it could be:
tlhInganpu' maH ?
------------------------------
From: "William Cody" <[email protected]>
At first glance, I assumed it was <tlhIngan maH> But that would
be <we are Klingon>, saying you, together, are the race of
thlingan. But <thlnganpu' maH> would be <we are Klingons>, saying
that the each of the group are Klingon. Very little difference,
but I think <thlInganpu' maH> would be more acceptable. Opinions?
------------------------------
From: [email protected]
I think tlhIngan maH just sounds better, even if it might be incorrect.
Maybe it is just the translation in TKW that is incorrect.
You could see it like
--> vagh tlhInganpu'
and
--> vagh tlhIngan
(?)
muHwI' qu'Sar
<<<
The sentence and its translation are absolutely correct as they stand.
See section 3.3.2 of The Klingon Dictionary, pp. 21-22:
"Unlike English, however, the lack of a specific suffix for plural
does not always indicate that the noun is singular. In Klingon,
a noun without a plural suffix may still refer to more than one entity.
The plurality is indicated by a pronoun, whether a verb prefix (see
section 4.1) or a full word (section 5.1), or by context. For example,
<yaS> *officer* may refer to a single officer or to a group of officers,
depending on other words in the sentence or the context of discussion.
...
"Fortunately for students of Klingon, it is never incorrect to add a
plural suffix to a noun referring to more than one entity, even in
those cases where it is unnecessary to do so. Accordingly, both
<yaS maH> and <yaSpu' maH> are correct, both meaning *we are
officers* [...]."
This document was created with Dragon Systems' NaturallySpeaking,
except the Klingon words and quoted text.
marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom -- Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'!
Subcmdr. Markemm, Klingon Sanitation Corps -- Death to Litterbugs!
** Mark A. Mandel : [email protected] **
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/