tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 07 16:49:55 1997

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Transitive {jach}



mughItlh peHruS
>qoror has offered {'IvvaD jach chaH.....}  = For whom do they howl?
>
>I offer {'IvvaD beymey jach chaH} and propose that even {jach} can be
>transitive.

This seems redundant.  "For whom do they howl the howls"?  I presume you're
suggesting this because {jach} doesn't necessarily mean "shout" or
"scream."  I thought of that too, but figured that the meaning would likely
come through.

I don't dispute {jach} being transitive, given Okrand's explanation of
things like {QIch jatlh.}

By the way, now that I think of it, there is a better translation.  {jach}
is a verb of saying, so {-vaD} in a sentence with it would indicate that
that is who is being talked too.  However, when a group of warriors get
together to howl, they aren't howling to the one who has died.  They're
howling to the other spirits (in either QI'tu' or the Black Fleet, I'm not
sure) to let them know that another warrior is coming.  Using {-vaD} is
rather copying the poem, and to convert cultures, it would be better to say
{'Ivmo' jach chaH}.
Qapla'
qoror


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