tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 06 12:30:55 2002

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Re: HeghmeH QaQbogh jaj yIngu'



tulwI':
> >>>  yIyep! yIqar!
> >>
> >> Hee hee!  bIjatlhnISbej <yIyep'eghmoH!  yIqar'eghmoH!>
> >
> > what's the difference?

SuStel:
>In KLINGON FOR THE GALACTIC TRAVELER, Okrand says that when verbs of quality
>are used imperatively, they normally use /-'egh/ and /-moH/.  They only lack
>these in the idiom /yItaD/ "Freeze!" which means "Stop moving!"  (Perhaps
>there are other idioms or situations in which you'd leave off the /-'egh/
>and the /-moH/, and no doubt someone will point out some line by Okrand in
>which this was done, but KGT makes it pretty explicit that when verbs of
>quality are used imperatively and non-idiomatically, they are also reflexive
>and causative.)


Here's the quotation from KGT (p.117):

     yItaD! or petaD! ("Be frozen!")

   These are idiomatic ways to give the command "Don't move!" The word
   {yItaD} is used when speaking to an individual; {petaD} is used when
   giving the command to a group. The verb {taD} means "be frozen," and
   it is used here in a peculiar, though not really ungrammatical, way.
   Generally, when a verb describing a state of being (for example, {tuj}
   ["be hot"]) is used in the imperative form, the suffixes {-'egh}
   (reflexive suffix) and {-moH} ("cause") are used as well:
   {yItuj'eghmoH} ("Heat yourself!"that is, "Cause yourself to be hot!"),
   {yItaD'eghmoH}! ("Freeze yourself!"--that is, "Cause yourself to be
   frozen!"). When {taD} is used in the idiomatic sense of "not move,"
   however, it is treated as if a verb describing an activity, such as
   {yIt} ("walk"): {yIyIt}! ("Walk!").



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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