RE: KLBC: 'Iv & nuq

["Andeen, Eric" <Eric.Andeen@Sequencia.com>]

DopDaq qul yIchenmoH QobDI' ghu'. It was qep'a' loSDIch.

pagh

-----Original Message-----
From: Andeen, Eric [mailto:Eric.Andeen@Sequencia.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 1999 12:36 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: KLBC: 'Iv & nuq


jatlh John Halliday:

> Is it possible for the words {'Iv} and {nuq} to be used in sentences
> that are not questions?  I'm trying to translate Abbot and Costello's
> 'Who's on first' sketch (yes I know, I'm being silly again), and the
> comedy value rapidly deteriorates if {'Iv} and {nuq} can only be used as
> questions.

"Who's on First?" in Klingon is indeed silly, and absolutely hilarious. I
listened to it on my way to work yesterday. <'Iv ghaH baHwI''e'> was
performed at qep'a' wejDIch (two and a half years ago) by Qanqor and Seqram,
and I had the good fortune to acquire a recording of it. The setting was
obviously changed from a baseball team to a new ship, and it works amazingly
well.

To answer your question, no, <'Iv> and <nuq> cannot normally be used without
turning a sentence into a question. However, the humor of the sketch is
really that <'Iv>, <nuq>, <jISovbe'>, etc. are being used as nicknames, and
one of the players is too thick to figure that out.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian