tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 09 10:01:19 2001
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Re: Help for someone new!
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Help for someone new!
- Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 10:52:09 EDT
From: "Rohan Fenwick" <[email protected]>
> BTW, has anyone thought of the possibility that the suffix <<-'e'>> may be
> the modern last vestige of a nominative case in ancient Klingon? We know
> that it marks the subject in quasi-copular sentences; might this usage have
> extended to all sentences? Or am I just trying too hard to expand the
> language in a dimension it's not intended to go?
I don't think Klingon ever had cases. My impression is that Klingon progressed from free particles to bound morphemes, at least in the verb system. In fact, I think we have an example of that happening right now: the verb {neH}.
My theory is that the ancestor of present Klingon did
not have verb suffixes, but separate verbs, which were
simply juxtaposed to express the required meaning, eg.
?{jISuv vIqang}. Over time, a common set of auxiliary
verbs lost their separate status and became suffixes
of the verb. I think {neH} for some reason didn't make
the transition at the same time, but is on it's way to
doing so, which is why you don't need {'e'} when {neH}
has another verb as its object. Maybe in 200 years,
Klingons will say ?{jISuvneH}!
-- ter'eS