tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 08 20:03:18 2001
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RE: Some more questions...
When I thought about it, these questions got more interesting. Not being
labeled KLBC, I'm going for it.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patrick Masterson [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 1:40 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Some more questions...
>
>
> Hopefully, these are better than my last batch of questions...
>
> 1. Can the pronouns SoH and tlhIH, when used as the verb "you are," be
> imperative? Can you say (nuch SoHQo'!) or would I have to say
> something like
> (nuch yIDaQo'!) Sometimes you can recast it, like recasting (qoH SoHQo'!)
> into (yIDoghQo'!), but not all nouns have verb equivalents.
I've never been tempted to make any pronoun imperative. Pronouns don't take
prefixes, of course and the prefix is what differentiates the imperative
from the declarative. I'd recast everything. {Da} is a good choice. {moj} is
good, too, since the imperative implies some sort of change of state when
used with any stative verb, and "to be" is definitively stative.
nuch yImojQo'!
Or if you think the person you are talking to already is cowardly:
nuch yIDataHQo'!
or
nuch yImojHa'!
> 2. There are some words, like cha/peng and ray'/DoS that are different in
> singular and plural. How are they used with numbers? Is the singular or
> plural used, or is it like with regular nouns, where you don't need to
> indicate plurality if there's a number?
To be honest, I don't think Okrand has addressed this. voragh will have a
better answer, I'm sure.
My reflex is to say that you should use the plural form with numbers greater
than one, but then, maybe these plurals imply groups and the number would
multiply the group instead of the individual. I doubt that, but if Okrand
said this was the case, it would become true. I'd stick with my original
reflex until such a time, though. It just makes more sense.
Simply put, it fits better with the model of allowing one pure plural form
and one "scattered all about" form to remain distinct. wa' peng, cha' cha,
wa' DoS, cha' ray'.
Scattered:
cha' pengmey, cha' DoSmey.
charghwI' 'utlh