tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 27 23:03:15 1998

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RE: opera: blind

• From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
• Subject: RE: opera: blind
• Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 00:01:44 -0700
• Importance: Normal

lab muHwI':

> Hi

> The klingons won't be able to see any more (i.e. they become
> blind)

> I wanted to do that using the verb {legh} And here's the
> problem with logic again, that stops me.

> Grammatically it should be {leghchoHlaHbe'}, but that sounds like
> "he is not able to change to see" But I want to say "he changes to
> not be able to see" leghlaH --> leghlaHbe' --> leghlaHbe'choH

> HHnnnnn???

Every natural language has ambiguities, and this is one of them in Klingon.
The suffix order in Klingon is fixed (except for <-be'> and <-qu'>), and you
can't change it. To someone just learning Klingon, it's difficult not to
want to rearrange suffixes sometimes. To someone who has spoked Klingon for
a while, misplaced suffixes just sound wrong.

<leghchoHlaHbe'> *does* mean "he begins/changes to be unable to see" ("he
becomes blind") as well as "he cannot begin to see", and probably a few
other meanings as well. The context of the sentence will almost always make
the intended meaning blindingly obvious.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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