tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 03 10:57:33 1998

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Re: KLBC: ram Hurgh



: ja' Qov :
:> I assumed the prefix and accepted the emphasis. English verbs don't take
:> prefixes.  How can I strictly mark macaroni?  You do have a correctly
:> self-referential sentence above, though: {muj mu'tlheghvetlh jay'} - jay'
:> goes at the end of the sentence.
: 
: I thought {jay'} acted just like {neH}. {neH} follows the word it
: refers to. I wanted to say: <This sentence is xxxxing wrong.>, not 
: <This xxxxing sentence is wrong.> Did I misunderstand something here?
: 
: HovqIj

If Qov will permit, I'll interject with what I do best:

"This word not only intensifies whatever is being said, it turns the whole
phrase into an invective.  Alone among the adverbials, {jay'} always comes
at the end of the sentence." (TKD p. 177)

Attestations in canon:
 - qaStaH nuq jay' 
   What the #$%@ is happening?  TKD
 - mIch 'elpu' jay'
   They've entered the @#$% sector!  TKD
 - SoH 'Iv jay'?
   [Who the hell are you?]  ST6 (untranslated)
 - qaStaH nuq jay'?
   [What the #$%@ is happening?] ST6 (untranslated)
 - ghaytanHa' jay'
   Not bloody likely! (Radio Times book)

Not canonical, but often used on the list and KEVE:
 - *ghobe' jay' 
    Hell no! No f***ing way!

As Mark Shoulson wrote in HolQeD 3.1, it's a "generic grammatical
intensifier" - i.e. it acts on the *entire* phrase. If you really want to
stress one specific word in a sentence with {jay'}, you have to find another
way.

Voragh



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