tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 10 23:21:40 2000

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Re: divorce



In a message dated 7/6/2000 1:31:16 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[email protected] writes:

<< Actually, it does; at least in on-screen Klingon lore.  In DS9 "House of 
Quark"
 when Grilka divorced Quark (at his request) - whom she had recently married 
in
 the *Brek'tal* {bIreqtal} ritual after Quark killed her husband in a bar 
fight
 - IIRC she slapped him, spit in his face, then shouted *N'Gos tlhogh cha!*
 "This marriage is dissolved!"  Short and sweet: no courts, alimony or divorce
 lawyers. >>

============
Since TKD glosses {ngoS} only as "dissolve" (verb), I have not considered its 
being a descriptive verb meaning "be dissolved."  So, I have not translated 
{ngoS tlhogh} as "The marriage is dissolved"; rather, I translate it as "The 
marriage dissolves."  Klingon lacks tense, so reference to when the marriage 
"dissolved" can be present-tense-like.

Not only was the quote not {tlhogh ngoSlu'} in the first place, I am appalled 
at the amount of misusages of {-lu'} as if it indicated passive voice.  It 
does not.  It indicates the subject's not being specified.  The correct 
translation of {tlhogh ngoSlu'} is "One/ somebody dissolves the marriage."


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