tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 18 18:09:41 2001

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Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?

Though not stated in THE KLINGON DICTIONARY, the so-called "sentence
conjunctions" can also join verbs.  This should not surprise us, as the
difference between a verb and a sentence in Klingon is slight.  /vISuvchoH/
is a sentence: "I start to fight him."  It is also a verb.  These
subordinate and relative verbs can take their adverbials and header nouns,
something which TKD only talks about for sentences (yet I don't hear anybody
complaining about).

There is also much direct evidence that the sentence conjunctions can also
join verbs
that are NOT the main verbs of joined sentences.

SuvmeH 'ej charghmeH bogh tlhInganpu'.
"Klingons are born to fight and to conquer."  (THE KLINGON WAY 5)
The two /-meH/ verbs here are not complete sentences by themselves, yet are
joined by the sentence conjunction /'ej/.

quv Hutlh HoHbogh tlhIngan 'ach qabDaj 'angbe'bogh.
"The Klingon who kills without showing his face has no honor."  (TKW 59)
The meaning of /'ach/ is almost the same as /'ej/.  The only difference is
that it implies a change of direction of the concept.  Logically, it is an
/'ej/.  This sentence shows two /-bogh/ verbs (not complete sentences)
joined by /'ach/.

Qu' buSHa'chugh SuvwI', batlhHa' vangchugh, qoj matlhHa'chugh, pagh ghaH
SuvwI''e'.
"If a warrior ignores duty, acts dishonorably, or is disloyal, he is
nothing."  (TKW 139)
This is the sentence where we learned how to join more than two
sentences--that is, verbs--into one.  It works just like English.
Suspiciously so.  But there you have it.  These are three /-chugh/
subordinate clause verbs joined by /qoj/.

SuDbogh Dargh 'ej wovbogh
"The tea that is /SuD/ and light."  (KLINGON FOR THE GALACTIC TRAVELER 82)
This is but a noun phrase.  Notice how Okrand also uses /SuD Dargh 'ej wov/
as a verbal parallel, strongly suggesting that there is no difference in
using /'ej/ between two verbs used as sentences and between two verbs used
as relative clauses.

romuluS Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'
"Romulan probe that seeks and kills"  (STAR TREK KLINGON Language Lab)
This is the longer version of the /HoHwI'/, the "Romulan Hunter-Killer."
This noun phrase is the one that violates the "subject on the first verb,
elided on the second" possibility in TKD (pp. 61-62).  Still, the relative
clauses are joined by /'ej/, and are relevant to this list.

juHqo' Qo'noSvo' loghDaq lengtaHvIS tlhInganpu' 'ej qo'mey Sar charghtaHvIS
chaH . . . .
"During the aggressive expansion of the Klingon people from their homeworld
of Kronos into space . . . ."  (SkyBox SP1, HolQeD Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 10)
I've only included part of this sentence, because it's one of the longest
and scariest Okrand has ever written.  This is merely the two subordinate
clauses together with /'ej/.

ngoch luchermeH 'ej wo' San luwuqmeH pa' ghom tlhIngan yejquv DevwI'pu'.
"The leaders of the Klingon High meet [there] to determine policy and decide
upon the fate of the Empire."  (SkyBox S25, HolQeD Vol. 5, No. 3, p. 15)
Here are two purpose clauses joined by /'ej/.  'Nuff said.

HeghDI' tlhIngan SuvwI' pagh tlhIngan SuvwI' HoHlu'DI' Heghtay lulop latlh
tlhInganpu'.
"When a Klingon warrior dies or is killed, other Klingons may [celebrate the
Klingon death ritual].  (SkyBox S31, HolQeD Vol. 6, No. 2, p. 9)
Here we have two subordinate clauses, whose verbs are /HeghDI'/ and
/HoHlu'DI'/, and which are joined by the conjunction /pagh/.  This is a case
where the subjects or objects do not match, and so are restated.  However,
each subordinate clause is just that: subordinate to the verb /lulop/.

I don't think there are any in CONVERSATIONAL KLINGON or POWER KLINGON, but
that's eight already.  I submit that it is well-established that any verbs
can be joined by sentence conjunctions, even if they're not complete
sentences by themselves.

The point of all this: I stand by my statement that /yoHbogh SuvwI' 'ej
matlhbogh Say'moHchu' may' 'Iw/ is a grammatically correct sentence, and if
one were considering grammar only, would be preferable to the actual
/yoHbogh matlhbogh je SuvwI'/, whose grammaticality is shaky at best.  It is
also the preferred way to write this sort of thing among Klingons, so far as
we now know.

SuStel
Stardate 1798.7

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