tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 19 15:52:56 1997

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KLBC: proper use of {je}



TKD 5.3. tells us "conjunctions joining nouns come after the final noun" and
gives the example {DeS 'uS je} "an arm and a leg".
This is fine when only two nouns are involved; but what if there are three or
more? (although I doubt Klingons use lengthy enumerations). What about :
{vav loDnI' be'nal je} (punctuation intentionally omitted) : "father, brother
and wife"
or "father and sister-in-law"?
Of course this is borderline, and according to the meaning there would
probably be a short pause between {loDnI'} and {be'nal} in the first case,
while
there would be one between each word in the second case.

I understand from TKD, {je} can only appear at the end of the enumeration ;
something like {vav loDnI' je be'nal je} is not canon.
Yet in Japanese (you're not finished with my comparing tlhingan Hol with
Japanese) they use "to" or "ya" after each word in the enumeration (this is
not the place to discuss the difference between to and ya; just assume
safely they're both the equivalents of {je}) so they would say :
{vav je loDnI' je be'nal je} or {vav je loDnI' be'nal je} according to the
intended
meaning. But we are not here to study Japanese. Since I have to stick to
the canon (and also since such cases are not very common), should I rely
on punctuation (not written in pIqaD) -- or, orally, in the scan of the
sentence?

BTW (i.e. no relationship to the above), {'u' che'wI'} is a nice Terran
nickname,
but not a good Klingon one. As a cigarette addict, glottal stops are a pain
to me.
How would you say "borderline" in tlhingan Hol? "(language) borderliner"
would
fit me quite well, wouldn'it it? :-)

Qapla' -- HdW



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