tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 11 06:14:06 2000
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Re: divorce
jatlh Voragh:
>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!"
jatlh peHruS:
>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.
Or, for that matter, future-tense-like (i.e., "This marriage will
dissolve.")
>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."
Okrand himself points out in TKD (page 39) that {-lu'} can be translated
using the English passive voice. He then gives three examples where he
does so. The passive voice rarely means *exactly* the same thing as
{-lu'}, but in many cases, it's close enough.
BTW, we don't have any canon for {ngoS}, qar'a'? My personal preference
would be to assume {ngoS} is intransitive and use {ngoSmoH} for the
transitive meaning, but of course, everyone else can do this however
they prefer.
DujHoD