RE: mu'meywIj tetlh

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

lab K'ryntes:

> WestphalWz@aol.com wrote:

>> In a message dated 1/11/1999 2:32:09 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
>> yoshi@surfshop.net writes:
>>
>> << paq chu' wIHevDI' 'e' vISovbe'. >>

This one doesn't work because <'e'> is a stand in for the previous sentence,
and you don't have a complete sentence - just a <-DI'> clause.

>> I think I understand what you are trying to convey here.  I had to do 
>> a doubel-take, though, because I did not find a head noun for {wIHevDI'},

>> then there was the pronoun {'e'}.  Do you mean {paq chu' wIHevbogh poH 
>> vISovbe'},

This doesn't quite work either. <paq chu' wIHevbogh poH> is "the time of the
book we recieved", but that doesn't mean "the time we received the book".
The <poH> is associated with the <paq>, and has nothing to do with <Hev>.
What is the "time of a book"? Is it the publication date? Is it the time it
takes to read?

> This is probably close.  I was trying to say, "I don't know when we 
> will receive the new book."

>> or maybe {paq chu' wIHev 'e' vISovbe'} (more likely?)?

> No, because we know we're getting a new book eventually.  We don't 
> know when.

> How 'bout this....

> paq chu' wIHevDI' vISovbe'.  if I just drop the 'e'?

Not quite. You are saying "When we recieve the book ... I will not know
<something>". This sentence gives us no clue as to what that <something> is.
Anyone hearing the sentence in context would assume the <something> was the
topic of the *previous* sentence.

This is an instance where you can seriously bend your mind looking for a
good way to warp this into one hideously complex Klingon sentence. Or you
can just break it into two simple Klingon sentences:

tugh paq chu' wIHev. poHna' vISovbe'.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian