tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 14 10:47:58 2000

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RE: KLBC: A simple doubt

jatlh Daniele:

>   I have this simple problem, and I think it was well 
> debated in the past: since I wish to say that I am 
> honored to serve Klingon Empire, I thought to say 
> this in two ways.
>
> First, I think that if 'e' is a real pronoun, it 
> should be able to be suffixed, so a possible 
> translation would be

> tlhIngan wo' wItuy' 'e'mo' wIquv

Spelling: <toy'> rather than <tuy'>, and the prefix on <quv> should be
<ma->.

Also, <'e'> really can't take suffixes. There's nothing in TKD to indicate
that it can, and no canon examples. Most of them wouldn't make any sense
anyway.

Fortunately, your particular problem is solved in the addendum in TKD: there
is a verb suffix <-mo'>. It behaves just like the noun suffix, so you can
say:

tlhIngan wo' wItoy'mo' maquv.

> Otherwise, if 'e' can be used as a a subject also 
> than an object, would it be correct to phrase it this way?
>
> tlhIngan wo' wItuy' nuquvmoH 'e'
> or
> nuquvmoH tlhIngan wo' wItuy' 'e'
> Are both correct? If not why?

<'e'> can only be an object, not a subject.

> I know that something like 'I serve the Empire with honor' 
> would do, but next time I need this? I hate workarounds!

Workarounds are neccessary when translating between any two languages where
the grammar does not match up exactly. In Irish Gaelic (feel free to correct
me, Xardana), for example, you can't literally say "I don't know". The
equivalent phrase is "Níl a fhios agam", which literally means something
like "the knowledge of it is not at me". It may seem strange to an English
speaker, but that's the way the language works. This is also what makes
learning new languages fun and challenging.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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