tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat May 10 23:18:35 1997

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RE: qepHomqoqwIj

[email protected] on behalf of [email protected] wrote:
> I can't read this. I am a beginner. Please translate this!!!???Is it
> something about a small or so-called error?

Hello!  I'm SuStel, the list's Beginners' Grammarian.  If you've got a 
question, feel free to ask it with the subject line having the letters "KLBC" 
in it.  This will point it out to me, so I can answer it for you.

I presume you're speaking of the subject, {qepHomqoqwIj}.  Have you got your 
TKD?  Let's see what this means.

The first thing you need to do is read all of section 3.  This will show you 
how to use nouns.  As you can see, nouns can have many different suffixes, but 
never prefixes.  This means that what we have here must begin with the noun 
{qep}.  Go ahead and look that one up.  It means "meeting."

If you have studied section 4, you can see that the other suffixes are as 
follows: {-Hom}, {-qoq}, and {-wIj}.  Let's go over each of these.

{-Hom} means the noun is smaller or less important than it would be without 
this suffix.  A {qep} is a meeting, so {qepHom} is a minor meeting.  You 
caught on to this suffix before.

{-qoq} means "so-called," which you also picked up.  It indicates that the 
speak doesn't really believe that the noun really represents the truth.  A 
{qepqoq} would be a "so-called meeting," meaning that the person who said the 
word doesn't believe that it really was a meeting.  In this case, Alan 
Anderson (ghunchu'wI') used this suffix to express the fact that while he was 
hosting a meeting, it didn't really turn out the way he expected, and so 
didn't quite live up to the term "meeting."

{-wIj} is a possessive suffix, one of many.  This one means "my."  It is to be 
used on nouns that refer to things incapable of using language (on other 
words, it wouldn't be used to refer to, say, one's mother).  {qepwIj} means 
"my meeting."

Now, as section 4 explains, the nouns must always be put in number order. 
{-Hom} is Type 1, {-qoq} is Type 3, and {-wIj} is Type 4.  It's okay if you 
don't have a suffix of every type.  Putting them on the end, we get

qepHomqoqwIj
my so-called minor meeting

Don't worry; as you practice, the suffixes are the first thing you'll pick up. 
 Oh, by the way, the word for "error" is {Qagh}.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97358.2

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