tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 13 10:52:25 2000
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: Klingon WOTD: Hoy' (v)
> Klingon word: Hoy'
> Part of Speech: verb
> Definition: congratulate
tuv'el wrote:
: yay'a'Dajmo' jupwI' QaS luHoy' tlhIngan yejquv.
{yejquv} "High Council} and {QaS} "troops" are grammatically singular in
Klingon, even though they are compose of more than one member. So you have to
use singular verb prefixes, in this case the "zero-prefix":
jupwI' QaS Hoy' tlhIngan yejquv.
The Klingon High Council congratulated my friend's troops.
Collective nouns are singular in American English ("Congress is in session")
but plural in British English ("Parliament are in session"), so this can be
problematic depending on which dialect you learned.
Note that your sentence can also be translated as:
The Klingon High Council congratulated my friend, Kras.
If this is the meaning you intend - and without context the reader has no way
of knowing - I would reverse the apposition for clarity, using {jupwI'} as a
tag or title:
QaS jupwI' Hoy' tlhIngan yejquv.
This is, however, a matter of personal style. YMMV.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons