tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 09 16:25:02 1999

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RE: KLBC: Noun Suffixes with Numbers

ghel DujHoD. jatlh:

> Can I use noun suffixes with numbers functioning as nouns?
> 
> For example:
> 
>     wa'Hom vIlegh! I see a little one!
> 
>     law'ba' cha'qoq. The so-called two are obviously many. 
> (could be used after the speaker was misled into thinking 
> that there are two people somewhere when there are actually 
> many)
> 
>     wa'vam Dalo' DaneH? Do you want to this one?
> 
> Type 2 suffixes probably wouldn't work, qar'a'?
> 
> I would assume that Type 5 suffixes would work, as in:
> 
>     pa'Daq 'oH wa''e'. One is in the room.
> 
>     wa'Daq jIboghpu'. I was born in one.

This is a good question, and I don't think I can give you an airtight
answer. 

I will comment that your last example (wa'Daq jIboghpu') probably does not
work very well in Klingon. In this case, you're not using "one" as a number,
but just as a place holder for wherever it is you were born. Of course, you
might have been saying "I was born in [room number] one", but I suspect not.
I would expect Klingon to use the actual noun rather than "one" in a
sentence like this: <pa'Daq jIboghpu'>. For a similar example, when offering
candy to someone, I would normally hold out a few in my hand and say "Want
one?" in English. In Klingon, I would probably just say <neH'a'?>, omitting
the noun entirely.

TKD does not explicitly say anything about noun suffixes on numbers. Some of
them obviously don't work (type 2), and some of them are a bit of a stretch
(type 1), but most do seem to make sense. Type 5 suffixes in particular
basically have to work in order for numbers to function fully as nouns,
which TKD says they do, so no worries there. For types three and four, I
would be cautious, but it's probably OK. I like the idea of <cha'Hey> and
<HutwIj>, but I can't unreservedly recommend them without a similar canon
example, and I can't think of any.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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