tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 03 00:43:07 1997
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Re: KLBC: lut vIja'
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: lut vIja'
- Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 00:42:47 -0700
At 05:36 97-10-02 -0700, sCoTt wrote:
Quch Qov. lut qon sCoTt. lutmey parHa' Qov. :)
}lut vIja'
I accept this usage but at least one other grammarian doesn't. I'll let him
tell you what he would prefer you say.
}yi'Ij
You're addressing more than one person, so you need the prefix {pe-}. Most
of the imperatives don't distinguish how many you are addressing, but the
no-object one does. {pe'Ij}.
}Ha'DIbaH'a' leghpu' tlhIngan
"The Klingon has seen a monster." "Monster" isn't necessarily the
translation of {HaDIbaH'a'}, but {Ha'DIbaH} with the augmentative suffix
{-'a'} is something like an animal, but an order of magnitude bigger, more
powerful or more important. "Monster" comes to mind.
}Ha'DIbaH'a' tIn
In a sentence, the subject (the monster) needs to come before the verb.
{Ha'DIbaH'a' tIn} means "the big monster." {tIn Ha'DIbaH'a'} means "the
monster was big."
}jachpu' thlIngan
"The Klingon has cried out." Watch out when you type {tlh}. Your fingers
will automatically try to type "thl" at first, because "tlh" doesn't exist
in English.
}<< batlh Daqawlu'taH >>
batlh Ha'DIbaH'e' qaw'a' tlhIngan?
The Klingon will remember the _monster_ with honour? Just making sure I
understand hat you mean.
}nom Ha'DIbaH'a' HoHpu' tlhIngan
"The Klingon has quickly killed the monster."
A comment on {-pu'}. All the way through your story you have used the
perfective aspect {-pu'}. I suspect you are doing this, in an attempt to
make your story set in the past. It doen't work that way. The abolutely
completely correct way to say, "the Klingon saw an animal" is {Ha'DIbaH legh
tlhIngan}.
Yes, that also means "the Klingon sees an animal" and "the Klingon will see
an animal," but that's the way it works. You are NOT getting closer to the
meaning of past tense by adding an aspect suffix. Klingon has NOTHING you
can put on a verb to indicate whether the action of the verb takes place
before, after or during the time it is told. None. If you want to make
sure your audience understands the action is in the past, tell them when it
happened.
So what are type 7 suffixes for? They indicate aspect: not whether the
action is past present or future, at the time the sentence is told, but
whether it is completed or continuous at the time the sentence is set.
{Ha'DIbaH HoH tlhIngan}
The Klingon kills the animal.
The Klingon will kill the animal.
The Klingon killed the animal.
{Ha'DIbaH HoHpu' tlhIngan}
The Klingon has killed the animal.
The Klingon had killed the animal.
The Klingon will have killed the animal.
{Ha'DIbaH HoHlI' tlhIngan}
The Klingon is in the process of killing the animal.
The Klingon will be killing the animal.
The Klingon was killing the animal.
One of the best canon examples of perfective aspect is the sentence {ghorgh
tujchoHpu' bIQ} "When will the water be hot?" More literally "When will the
water have completed changing to be hot?"
Any questions?
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian