tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 03 20:49:21 1997

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RE: KLBC: yIn QaDwIj

jatlh Edy Fonseca:

> Can I use  <yIn QaDwIj> as parasite? A "dryer of life" meaning sucker or
> drainer of life?

The Short Answer: No.

The Long Answer: I would never realize that "dryer of life" was supposed to 
mean "parasite."  This is one of ~mark's "hindsight words," something you only 
understand when you already know what it is you're trying to say.

But . . . let's go over the grammar of the phrase, anyway.  It sounds like 
"life my-be dry."  You've got a noun suffix on a verb; that's a no-no.  The 
only ones allowed on verbs are Type 5 noun suffixes, and only when they're 
following the noun adjectivally.

{QaD}, by the way, is "be dry."  What you're looking for is something which 
"causes something else to be dry."  That's accomplished with {-moH}.  
{QaDmoHwI'} is "thing which causes to be dry," and {yIn QaDmoHwI'} is "life 
thing-which-causes-to-be-dry."  Not a very elegant phrase in English, and not 
very informative in Klingon.

If you want to discuss a parasite, you must describe it.  You must explain 
what it does, how it acts.  You needn't use this descriptive paragraph every 
time you name the thing; once you do so, everyone will know what you mean.  
But never think that just because you used it in one message or story, 
everyone's going to suddenly know what you're talking about the next time you 
want to talk about a parasite.  You'll have to explain it all over again.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97423.7

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