tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 11 10:32:32 2000

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RE: KLBC Questions One



jatlh Rohn A.:

> In some languages, such as Greek, they have a way 
> to combine word forms from two or more concepts. 
> Such as 'desmophulax' comes from 'desmos' and 
> 'phulax'. Desmophulax means a jailer as in 
> guarding the prisoner. Where as desmos means a 
> band as in shackle of a prisoner also a ligament 
> (of the body), and phulax means a keeper as in a 
> watchman. Is it possible to do the same thing in 
> tlhIngan Hol? I am trying to convey a similar 
> idea with "strong one" plus "to swear, to bind 
> oneself by an oath(which would be much like the 
> concept of faithfulness)." Each piece depicts a 
> small portion of the person it represents.

While Klingon does have compound nouns and a few words that appear to be
derived from compounds of other types of words, there's not a general
process for combining two things like this into a single word. If you want
to come up with a noun phrase for someone who is strong and swears an oath,
you'll basically have to build it up out of <HoS> and <'Ip>. Here are some
useful phrases:

HoSwI' - strong one
'IpwI' - one who swears (an oath) / swearer (of an oath)
'Ipbogh <X> - X who swears (an oath). X could be <ghot>, <nuv>, or anything
else you can think of.
'Ipbogh HoSwI' - Strong one who swears.
'IpwI' HoS - Strong swearer / strong one who swears.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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