tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Nov 20 19:47:28 1999
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Re: Klingon WOTD: baj (v)
ja' qa'ral:
>It's the *-lu'* in *yInlu'taH* that's throwing me. I'm so used to thinking
>of it as a sort of Klingon passive that it never occurred to me it would
>work on an intransitive verb. Are there other canon examples? yay'lu'taH
>'e' not mevlu' jay'!
TKD page 171: "Is this seat taken?" Accounting for typographic errors,
this is translated as {quSDaq ba'lu''a'}.
Try not to think of {-lu'} as being the same as passive voice. It usually
represents an idea that can be translated well using English passive voice,
but its true meaning is "indefinite subject." It can always be translated
literally using the impersonal "one"; that's a good way to avoid the trap
of treating the object of a {V-lu'} as its subject.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh