tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 13 11:35:28 1998

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: KLBC++ : Some Questions on {jatlh}, {ghom}, etc.



According to Steven Boozer:
> 
> : Dawut Duy'a' <[email protected]> wrote:
> :> While composing an email communiqu, I rendered {maghomqa'} for 
> :> "we meet again" and as a result several questions have been conjured.
> :> In the spirit of {qajatlh} "I speak to you/I speak with you", would it 
> :> be acceptible to say, {qaghomqa'} for "I meet you again" or {choghomqa'} 
> :> for "you meet me again"; or should these be fully expanded to {maghomchuqqa' 
> :> maH} "we meet/encounter each other again" and so on?

As seen below (to get back to the original point), you don't
have to be using the indirect object trick on {ghom}. It takes
those being met as a direct object. You can also use it
intransitively without needing {-chuq}.

> : Okrand has used {ghom} both transitively and intransitively, so 
> : apparently, it doesn't need {-chuq}, though that would not be 
> : necessarily wrong to use it. In other words, all of the 
> : following would be correct:
> :    maghomqa'.
> :    choghomqa'.
> :    qaghomqa'.
> :    maghomchuqqa'.
> : While I don't have the quotes with me, the references I have are:
> : S15, HolQeD 4.3, TKW p184, TKD p170. I fully expect voragh won't 
> : be far behind me...
> 
> Here's what I have for the verb {ghom} (what's that HolQeD 4.3 ref?):

You listed it below. HolQeD 4.3 has S15 in it.

> : > We've seen {qajatlh} in "canon" for "I speak to you/I speak with you".
> : > The Postal Course includes {qaghItlh} for "I write to you".  
> : 
> : That probably should not be there. It's a stretch, since 
> : {ghItlh} is not the best word for "write" in the sense of 
> : "correspond" and when I see {qaghItlh}, I have an image of 
> : someone tatooing someone.

Is someone who works on the Postal Course noticing this?

> : charghwI'
> 
> jImon.  For "write" in the non-physical sense, consider {Qum} "communicate".
> Okrand has used it just once, in a post to SuStel on the old MSN Expert
> Forum BBS (11/96):
> 
>   naDev bIQumqa' 'e' vItul.
> 
> Whether {Qum} can take an object - ?{qaQum} "I communicate with you" - is
> unknown. 

If so, it likely is using the same indirect object shorthand
trick as qajatlh.

> -- 
> Voragh                           "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons     lis est."         Horace (Ars Poetica)

charghwI'



Back to archive top level