tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 09 09:52:47 1999

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Re: Puzzling motion



On Wed, 8 Sep 1999 23:59:24 -0400 Garrett Michael Hayes 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> On 8 Sep 99, at 22:34, Ed wrote:
> 
> > "William H. Martin" wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Wed, 08 Sep 1999 09:33:40 -0500 Terrence Donnelly
> > > <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > I was doing some translating the other day, and I hit upon a
> > > > puzzler.  In light of the new rules regarding Type 5 suffixes and
> > > > motion verbs, how do you say "Where are you going?"
> > 
> > nuqDaq yIleng
> > 
> > if just to remove the ambiguity of the motion.
> 
> Doesn't yI make it a command rather than a query?
> 
> 'etlhqengwI'
> (vuDmeywIjvaD jIngoy' jiH'e')

Did I really write that? It looks entirely unfamiliar. I must 
have been very, very tired.

In my current state of mind, "Where are you going?" should be 
something like {nuq DaghoS?}

Very simply, {jaH} seems like a great verb when the focus is on 
moving rather than standing still, while {ghoS} has more focus 
on the path being followed or the destination of that path. If 
you are asking "Where?", then the location is more the focus 
than the action, so {ghoS} sounds like the better verb, and it 
doesn't require {-Daq} on the destination-or-path that is the 
direct object.

I can also see {nuqDaq DaghoS}, though I don't like it as much. 
{nuqDaq bIghoS} or {nuqDaq bIjaH} sounds more like it is asking 
for the scope of your travels rather than the destination. It is 
the equivalent of the somewhat slang, "Where all are you 
planning on seeing?" That might be southern slang at that; 
downright dialectic.

charghwI' 'utlh



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