tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 05 13:26:11 1997
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Re: KLBC:be'nI'HeywIj
>Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 21:46:10 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
>
>>tlhIngan ghaHchugh vIHoH.
>>If she was a Klingon I would Kill her.
>
>Here's something that I think doesn't quite translate as it is intended.
>It seems to say "If she is a Klingon I will kill her" with no implication
>that she either is or is not a Klingon.
>
>The grammatically correct English should be "If she *were* a Klingon...",
>using something called the "subjunctive mood", referring to a hypothetical
>situation. Klingon doesn't deal with hypotheticals very well, apparently
>preferring to deal with what *is* rather than what is not.
Is this really so? I think the problem is that Klingon does not (to my
knowledge) have a grammatical method for showing a counterfactual
subjunctive. Does that mean that "tlhIngan ghaHchugh vIHoH" cannot mean
"if she were a Klingon..."? I don't think so. Just that the distinction
is not grammatically marked in Klingon as it is in English.
>My favorite tool for expressing ideas like this is to turn the idea around
>in the other direction:
>{tlhIngan ghaHbe'mo' vIHoHbe'}
>"Because she is not a Klingon I will not kill her."
This, to be sure, is nice also.
~mark