Re: mu'meywIj tetlh

[Terry Donnelly <pag000@mail.connect.more.net>]

WestphalWz@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 1/12/1999 12:17:48 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
> yoshi@surfshop.net writes:
 
>  I was trying to say, "I don't know when we will
> receive
>  the new book."
> 
>  How 'bout this....
> 
>  paq chu' wIHevDI' vISovbe'.  if I just drop the 'e'?
>   >>
>

I think you are confused by the definition of /-DI'/.  It means 'when'
only
in the sense of 'as soon as': /paq chu' vIHevDI', jIQuchmoH/  'As soon
as/when 
I receive the new book, I will become happy.'

 
> I'm not the BG, just a tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI' of six years already.  But, no.
> Merely dropping the {'e'} won't work.  Reason:  Your sentence means "As soon
> as we receive a new book, I will not know [something]."
> 
> paq chu' wIHevbogh poH vISovbe' means "I do not know the time which we will
> receive a new book."
> 

Actually, this doesn't work, either.  As charghwI' (I believe) pointed
out, this
means 'I do not know the time of the new book which we receive.' 
Unfortunately,
the correct translation is unknown to us at present because the original
English sentence is an example of a relative adverb, which we just don't
know how 
to say yet.  In the sentence "I know _when_ the book is coming", we have
never yet
found a way to express that 'when'.  It is _not_ the same as the word
/ghorgh/,
which means only 'when?' as a question.  We have the same problem with
words like
'where' and 'how' (as in "I know how you did it").  You can get around
the problem
by re-casting (eg. /vay' Data'. mIwlIj vISov/), but we don't know any
Klingon
equivalents to the relative adverb at this time.
 


-- ter'eS