tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 19 10:24:47 1997

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Re: do at the beginning of words



Darkshadow asks:

> can the word do or are ever appear at the end of the sentence

Someone followed this up with cases where "do" and "are" occur at the 
end of English sentences, and while you probably looked at it as 
silly, it was the only way to answer, because the question is only 
relevant for English.

I'm assuming that because this is a Klingon list, and because your 
previous questions have been about Klingon, that you were asking 
about Klingon this time, too.

You've asked this question a few times, DarkShadow, in varying ways 
and I've tried to answer it for you, but as you're still asking, I 
obviously haven't explained it well enough yet. I'm going to try to 
explain more thoroughly.  You need to think a little wider than "do" 
and "are" to understand this answer, but when you do understand it 
you will understand that Klingon is DIFFERENT than English.  Not just 
the sounds.  Not just the words, not just order they are arranged in, 
but the basic way that thoughts are divided up into words doesn't 
match English.  

Have a look at the question sentences you seem to be asking about, 
and the related statements:

Are you a Klingon?  You are a Klingon.
Do you speak Klingon?  You speak Klingon.
Are you hungry?  You are hungry.
Are you listening?  You are listening.
Have you eaten?  You have eaten.

To make an English statement into a yes/no question we use 
'inversion' -- turning the words around.  We take the helping verb 
("do" or "have" or "are" in the examples) and put it at the beginning 
of the sentence.  When there is no helping verb, we take the main 
verb if it is a part of "to be" (am are is), otherwise we use "do."  
It sounds like a strange, complicated rule said that way, but you 
have no trouble using it without thinking when you speak English, 
even if you don't know the differnce between a verb and a noun. It's 
just the way questions are asked in English.  The "do" in "Do you 
speak Klingon?" doesn't really *mean* anything.  It just turns the 
statement into a question.  Right?  Don't take that on faith. Tell me 
if you don't agree.

In Klingon there is a different way to make a statement into a 
question.  We add the suffix {-'a'} to the end of the verb.

tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh - I speak Klingon
tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh'a' - do I speak Klingon?
tlhIngan SoH - You are a Klingon
tlhIngan SoH'a' - Are you a Klingon?

The {-'a'} by itself doesn't really mean anything.  It just turns the 
sentence into a question.

If this still doesn't make sense, or if you have more questions, 
please follow up and explain as much as you can about your question.  

You can expect to learn a lot about English, and about other 
languages as well, while learning Klingon.  

- Qov

Robyn Stewart                     [email protected]
NLK Technical Library  ph. (604) 689-0344 fax (604) 443-1000
NLK Consultants Inc. 855 Homer Street, Vancouver BC  V6B 5S2


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