tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 28 15:23:46 1998
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Re: KLBC: -ghach
Kryntes wrote:
: Can -ghach be used with all verbs? In TKD one example is lo'lahghach
: (value). lo'lah doesn't even have a suffix. It's a verb meaning (be
: valuable). So what it looks like to me is that Okrand took a verb and
: put ghach on the end to make a noun.
:
: "It is not known if all verbs can be used as nouns, but it is known that
: verbs ending in suffixes (such as -Ha' undo in lobHa' disobey) can never
: be nouns. The type 9 suffix -ghach, however, can be attached to such
: verbs in order to form nouns." (TKD p.176)
:
: That gives me the impression that only verbs ending in certain suffixes
: can take -ghach but like I said, the example Okrand used doesn't have a
: suffix.
Well, yes it does: /-laH/. In this case, /-ghach/ is attached to the
intervening suffix and not directly to /lo'/. You're right, however, that
/lo'laH/ "be valuable" is something of a special case in Klingon, but not as
far as /-ghach/ is concerned. Okrand discussed /lo'laH/ on the Expert Forum
BBS (11/97):
"It is a simple verb in its own right (though it's an unusual
two-syllable one), not the verb /lo'/ use plus Type 5 suffix
/-laH/ can. It is likely that there is some sort of historical
connection to the verb + suffix form, but, if so, it is just
that--historical."
Okrand discussed /-ghach/ a bit more in HolQeD 3.3:
"So /-ghach/ means something like condition of being X, if X is
stative. Or action or process involved with, or maybe result of
the action, but the process involved with Y where Y is, for the
lack of a better term, an active verb."
Other known /-ghach/ nouns are:
lo'laHbe'ghach worthlessness (TKD)
naDHa'ghach discommendation (TKD)
naDqa'ghach re-commendation (TKD)
quvHa'ghach dishonor (TKW)
Okrand gave several more examples of /-ghach/ used correctly in his HolQeD
article:
tlhutlhtaHghach "ongoing drinking"
nobtaHghach "ongoing giving",
nobpu'ghach "a given (a finished case of giving)"
quvmoHghach "process of honoring"
belpu'ghach "having been pleased"
Note that these do not correspond to a single word in English. Okrand also
listed some "marked" terms, or examples of /-ghach/ used incorrectly on the
bare verb, but still understandable - more or less - to native speakers:
*belghach "pleasureness"
*nobghach "givation, one-time donation"
*quvghach "honoredness".
Also note that his translations are also "marked" in English: the nouns are
incorrectly formed, but understandable - at least to a native speaker.
: Oh, I don't want pagh to puke when he sees all my KLBCs so I'll open
: this up to anyone. :)
So the short version is: Only attach /-ghach/ to a verbal suffix - any verbal
suffix - never to the bare verb. AFAIK, you can do this to all verbs. But
(you knew there had to be a "but"), based on the corpus it appears that
abstract derived /-ghach/ nouns are VERY rare in Klingon and are used far less
than in a noun-centered language like English. Use them sparingly, if at
all.
There is usually a way to recast your sentence without it if you give it a
little thought.
_________________________________________________________________________
Voragh "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons lis est." Horace (Ars Poetica)