tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 11 00:24:55 1997
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Re: Apposition
ja' Qermaq:
>romoluSngan ghaHbogh jaghma''e' vIHoHta'
>I have killed our enemy, who is a Romulan.
>OR
>I have killed a Romulan, who our enemy is. (Same meaning.)
Since {jaghma''e'} has the topic suffix, I don't think the second
translation works. If you really want that meaning, you'l have to
turn around the "to be" phrase:
jaghma' ghaHbogh romuluSngan'e' vIHoHta'.
>OR
>I have killed our enemy, a Romulan.
This is a bit simpler if you don't insist on making it one sentence:
jaghma' vIHoHta'. romuluSngan ghaH.
>This is perhaps both a good and legal way to use apposition in Klingon.
Apposition in Klingon works just like it does in English. Just put the
two nouns next to one another (and hope nobody misinterprets it as a
noun-noun "possessive" construction).
romuluSngan jaghma' vIHoHta'. I have killed our Romulan enemy.
Using things like {ghaHbogh} makes the meaning a bit more precise, to
be sure, but it also makes it sound very unlike Klingon to me. :-/
-- ghunchu'wI'