tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 24 20:37:09 1999
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Re: qama'
ja' peHruS:
>Are you considering {ju-} containing both a subject "you" and and object "us"?
Certainly. That's the only possible meaning, according to the chart
on page 33 of The Klingon Dictionary. It's also the way {jura'} is
explained in the detailed breakdown of {chay' jura'} on page 70.
>Uh-oh. This is where Klingon differs from English but not from so many
>American Indian languages of the western United States and Melanesian and
>Micronesian languages, Mayan, Quechua, and Swahili (there might be many more
>that I do not know about). The pronominal prefix is not a subject+object
>combination at all. People who think in English might see it that way; but
>it is not true. The pronominal prefix, by definition of being a pronominal
>and a prefix, is a directional prefix. The prefix says who is doing the
>action of the verb to whom. But, the subject of a sentence is a separate word
>and the object of the sentence is a separate word.
The Klingon Dictionary disagrees with you (again). The relevant section
is small; I will state it in its entirety here.
TKD section 4.1. "Pronominal prefixes", page 32:
| Each Klingon verb begins with a single prefix that indicates
| who or what is performing the action described by the verb
| and, when relevant, who or what is the recipient of that
| action. In other words, Klingon verb prefixes indicate both
| the subject and the object of the sentence.
The next section contains a sentence that underscores the idea:
| Note that both the subject and the object are combined into a
| single prefix.
-- ghunchu'wI'