tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 19 07:33:50 1997

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Re: mughmeH qeq

According to TPO:
> 
> >Let's see how you all translate this:  SIS rIntaHDI' pumpa' nagh'a' qaSpu'
> >loS jaj
> 
> hmmm...
> 
> four days occurred before boulders fell when it accomplished rain

You forget that {rIntaH} is a special case. It can follow a
complete sentence with a more emphatic equivalent to a {-pu'}
suffix on the previous verb. Okrand made that up in order to
keep Valkris's lips moving when he dubbed a Klingon line over
a scene already shot with Valkris speaking the subtitle in
English. Her lip movements perfectly fit the English version of
her line (given in the subtitle) and the Klingon version didn't
have enough syllables, so Okrand tagged {rIntaH} onto the end
of the line and explained it in TKD. It is the only useage of
{rIntaH} in this grammatical construction in canon.

We've never seen {rIntaHDI'} before, and it may be illegal, but
I'll let this one pass.

> hmm, I don't think so.

I think it is grammatically acceptable (though {rIntaHDI'} is
slightly controversial here and {SISpu'DI'} would have done as
well without the controversy). Meanwhile, I'm not sure peHruS
has succeeded in expressing what he intended to express.
Perhaps so, but it sounds like he is trying to build a sequence
of events. Sequences have been a point of interest to him
recently. I don't think this establishes the kind of clear
sequence he intended. If I understood the sequence better, I'd
make a stab at it. Most likely, it requires multiple sentences.

I look to TKW as the only model of sequential description so
far. "A Klingon is born, [something I forgot], then dies." In
Klingon, it was simply three sentences following one another.

> grammer
> 
> 
> DloraH

charghwI'

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