tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 04 12:50:40 2001
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Re: tuQaHlaH'a' ?
How about:
bijatlhvIS batlh DaDel
I don't have my TKD with me; I don't remember if -vIS verbs have to go
after or before... But basically, "When you spoke, you described honor."
If you want to get more complex, how about
<complicated bit> 'e' DaDel bIjatlhvIS batlh
For "You spoke to me about honor yesterday", could be
wa'Hu' batlh DaDel jIHvaD DajatlhvIS
Going out on a limb, how about:
wa'hu' batlh wI'ja'chuq
"Yesterday we discussed honor" (not sure if it shoudn't be "batlhvaD";
does ja'chuq take an object?)
...Paul
On Fri, 4 May 2001, David Trimboli wrote:
> Replies to this question included the word /qel/ "consider," but I consider
> (!) the word to be somehow inappropriate. Not wrong, mind you, just not
> quite right.
>
> Allow me to suggest a somewhat radical sentence:
>
> jajvetlh quv'e' jIHvaD bIjatlh.
>
> The main part of the sentence is, of course, /bIjatlh/ "You speak." In
> Klingon, if it's a noun and not the subject or object, it usually goes at
> the beginning (and nouns indicating time tend to go ahead of everything
> else). Krankor appropriately calls the function of these nouns "header."
> This sentence has a verb and three headers.
>
> /jajvetlh/ is "that day." As a time indicator, it goes in the front.
>
> /jIHvaD/ "for me" indicates that "I" am the beneficiary of the action
> ("speaking").
>
> /quv'e'/ is the key point here, and the sneaky bit. It's also the most
> objectionable part of the suggestion. It indicates that "honor" is the
> topic of the sentence. It's not the subject or object, so it goes in the
> "header" location with the others. It's position is interchangeable with
> /jIHvaD/.
>
> A fully-detailed way to say this whole sentence might be, "I'm about to
> focus on honor now: you spoke to me that day." Note that it doesn't
> explicitly say that you spoke about honor, but if the topic of a sentence
> about speaking is honor, it should be pretty clear what the speaker was
> speaking about.
>
> Again, this is not a denial of the possibility of using /qel/. I just don't
> feel comfortable with "consider" being quite so universally applicable as
> the other suggestions assumed. I can't help but imagine a bespectacled
> Klingon pursing his lips thoughtfully, folding his arms, and saying "Indeed.
> Interesting. Hmm. Let us consider, . . . " a very un-Klingon thing to do.
>
> SuStel
> Stardate 1340.9
>
> P.S.: While /jIHvaD bIja'/ as you have it works for "you told me," it's a
> little roundabout. The object of /ja'/ is the party being told something.
> /choja'/ "you told me." With /jatlh/, on the other hand, the object is the
> thing spoken (but not a quotation), and so if someone is listening he must
> be indicated as a header noun with /-vaD/ "beneficiary" (e.g. /jIHvaD/ "for
> me.") To further muddy the water here, one may optionally use the "prefix
> trick" to "contract" the /-vaD/-bearing noun into the verb prefix (e.g.
> /jIHvaD bIjatlh/ "you speak to me" may become /chojatlh/ if so desire).
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 12:28 PM
> Subject: tuQaHlaH'a' ?
>
>
> > I'm trying (in TKD, KGT, and NWL) to find a way to convey the idea of
> > "about", as in "You spoke to me about honor that day." My thesaurus was no
> > help, as I could find neither about, regarding, in respect to, or anything
> > vaguely similar.
> >
> > jajvetlh quv <about> jIHvaD bIja'pu'.
> >
> > Did I miss something?
> >
> > juDmoS
>
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