tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat May 11 23:08:38 2002
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Re: help with "Floreat Majestas"
On Sun, May 12, 2002 at 08:56:54AM +1000, Peter Louvel wrote:
> }So QaghHommey --> less mistakes ?
No, the -mey doesn't change the meaning or make the -Hom somehow modify
the quantity instead of the noun itself. It just makes the whole thing
plural, like adding a -s does in English.
We don't really have a separate word in English for the idea represented
by "QaghHom". QaghHom is to Qagh (error) as Qagh is to Qagh'a'
(major error, blunder). I remdered it as "mistakelet" but that's not
a real word; "minor error" will probably have to do. So "QaghHommey
is just "minor errors".
Krankor's full question was this::
marqoS, bIpabHa'DI', QaghHommey vI'ang DaneH'a'?
which breaks down something like this:
marqoS, when-you-mis-follow, minor-mistakes I-show-them you-want-it?
And translates like this:
marqoS, when you err, do you want me to point out the minor mistakes?
Incidentally, the minor mistake in question - at least the closest one
to Krankor's query - was using wI- to mean "we (do something to) them".
For most subjects, the verb prefix for doing something to "them"
is the same as the prefix for doing something to "him" or "her" or "it",
but one of the exceptions is when the subject is "we".
The prefix "wI-" is only usable with a singular object; if the object
is plural, the prefix has to be "DI-".
-marqoS