tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 10 17:18:42 1997

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KLBC: miscellaneous questions.



I first have to thank you all that gave me advice about some points which
*now*
appear to me as beginner's mistakes (there were many mistakes and i'm a very
beginner, so it's not surprising). However this advice raises new remarks and
questions (probably as silly as the first ones were).

1 - about {'u'che'wI'} for "Master of the Universe". (SuStel, 10/06/97
15:31:27) :
I did think there was some need to split the nominal sentence somewhere. But
{'u'  che'wI'} is a noun-noun construct since {-wI'} makes a noun out of a
verb. It
works OK on its own, but can it be used as a simple noun in another noun-noun
construct? e.g; "the Home of the M. of U. could be {juH 'u' che'wI'}?

2 - about {mI'QeD} as "mathematics" (got several answers about this, cannot
mention credit to everyone, although they do deserve it).
  a) {pIch vIghajqu'} I hardly ever have a look to the English/Klingon part
of TKD
so I missed {tej} (should have thought of {Holtej} !!!) and tried to force a
verbal
suffix onto a noun : {mI'QedwI'} is clearly a barbarism. {mI'QeD ghojmoHwI'}
would mean I teach maths, which I don't. So {mI'tej jIH} (suggested  by
ghunchuwI', thanx) seems the most appropriate.
  b) (this is a remark on SuStel's answer) : {mI'QeD} is strictly speaking
the
science of numbers (arithmetics, nowdays called number theory) which is an
essential part of mathematics but far from covering the whole subject.
However
since many Terran languages have this idiom, I can accept it. Anyway, I don't
expect to have some day the tlhingan Hol equivalent of "symplectic fiber
bundle".
(BTW : the word "mathematics" comes from Ancient Greek when sciences were
not so distinct as they are today, and it means "lesson, to learn, to study"
- little
relation to numbers!

3 - MO tells us that a sentence-as-object (with {'e'}) can only be used as
the
verb's object. Does it mean we have to "reverse" sentences as in :
"That we kill prisoners shocks them." ("we kill prisoners" as subject)
"They are shocked because we kill prisoners" (seems more Klingon)
After all, this is not a real problem as the example above demonstrates. But
the
first sentence sounds more natural in French. Don't forget I've got a double
indirection tlhingan Hol->English->French and back!

Qapla' -- HdW (or 'u' che'wI' ? didn't decide yet).


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