tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 14 11:23:49 2001
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Re: nughIQmoH Dujmey
Sean Healey wrote:
: BG: Is {Dab} what we would consider a transitive in English? That is,
: am I correct to use [place] vIDab instead of [place] jIDab?
You are. Neither do you say {[place]Daq jIDab}.
See the definition "reside in/at, dwell in/at" in KGT. Note that the
prepositions "in/at" are included as part of the definition. Okrand also
glossed {Dab} as "inhabit" or "occupy" on startrek.klingon which are perhaps
grammatically more informative, if somewhat less colloquial, as these verbs are
also transitive in English.
BTW: Don't confuse {Dab} with {yIn} "live" (i.e. "be alive"), {toq} "be
inhabited" and the military term {Dan} "occupy".
For those interested, here's Okrand's post on startrek.klingon (7/99):
"Actually, the most common form of the question "Where do you live?" is not a
question at all, but a command such as: {Daq DaDabbogh yIngu'} "Identify the
place where you live" ... Perhaps a translation such as "Identify the place
that you live at" or "Identify the place that you inhabit" is more revealing.
Answers are likely to be brief and to the point: {Daqvam} "this place", {pa'}
"there", {naDev} "here", {qachvetlh} "that building", {Qo'noS "Kronos"}. It is
possible, however, to respond with a full sentence: {Daqvam vIDab} "I live at
this place", {pa' vIDab} "I live there", {naDev vIDab} "I live here",
{qachvetlh vIDab} "I live in/at that building", {Qo'noS vIDab} "I live on
Kronos".
"Of the three suggested ways to ask "Where do you live?" the first is the
most acceptable: {nuq DaDab} "What do you inhabit? What do you dwell at?" ...
The English translations of {nuq DaDab} are very awkward (from an English point
of view) and don't get across the sense of the Klingon all that well. The less
literal "Where do you live?" is what is really being asked. In Klingon, when
one lives in a place or dwells in a place, he or she is thought of as
"occupying" or "inhabiting" that place; not doing something at that location,
but doing something to it (occupying it)."
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons