tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 27 16:41:14 1997
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: KLBC: Buy or Die
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: Buy or Die
- Date: Tue, 27 May 97 23:35:25 UT
Stardate 97401.23 jatlh Q'ISto'va:
> bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh... okay, I know this is the caconical phrase "Buy
> or die".. though I find it interesting that translating it out into
> Terran, it becomes:
>
> bIje'be'chugh => If you do not buy
> vaj => then
> bIHegh => you (will) die
>
> Sure, it sounds sound (well IMHO it does), but it sounds so... "formal" ?
It sounds formal in English because we usually indicate a choice of two
alternatives by joining two imperatives with a conjunction. In fact, there
are a number of {bI-V1-be'chugh vaj bI-V2} sentences which we've seen in
canon. This suggests to me that this format is readily accepted by Klingons.
It also makes me wonder if {yIje' pagh yIHegh} even makes sense in Klingon.
{pagh} joins sentences, but we've never seen it join *imperative* sentences.
I doubt that this, while grammatically plausible, is actually used by
Klingons.
> I'm wondering why something like:
>
> bIHegh bIje'be'chugh
>
> could not be considered equally valid, the fact that "vaj" is now missing
> gives:
>
> If you do not buy, you will die...
There's no reason why this is incorrect. However, Okrand seems to suggest
that {bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh} is a common utterance in Klingon shops (and
David Barron once grunted it to me as I was browsing over his T-shirts for
sale).
So, it probably only seems formal because of our English language biases.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97404.5