tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 19 08:53:47 2003

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Re: SIv


>Can someone refresh my memory on what Okrand said
>about the word {SIv}?

From a post to msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand, 01 Jul 1997 (later 
reprinted in HolQeD 7:2):

All four words asked about (tul "hope," Qub "think,"  Sov "know," and SIv
"wonder") can be used in the construction S 'e' V, where S is a sentence,
'e' is the pronoun ("that") which refers to a previous topic (in this case
S), and V is one of the verbs listed above (as well as some others).

If the sentence (S) is tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh "you speak Klingon" (tlhIngan
Hol "Klingon language," Dajatlh "you speak it"), it's OK to say:

        tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vItul "I hope that you speak Klingon"
        (vItul "I hope it")

        tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vIQub "I think that you speak Klingon"
        (vIQub "I think it")

        tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISov "I know that you speak Klingon"
        (vISov "I know it")

        tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISIv "I wonder if you speak Klingon"
        (vISIv "I wonder it")

The fourth example is weird from an English translation point of view, but
it falls right in line in Klingon.  If the English translation matched the
pattern of the other three sentences, it would be "I wonder that you speak
Klingon."  In English, this means something like "I'm surprised that you
speak Klingon" or "I don't understand how it can be that you speak
Klingon," but this is not what the Klingon sentence means.  The Klingon
sentence means something more like "I am curious about whether you speak
Klingon."  The clumsiness here is the English, not the Klingon.



In an interview in HolQeD 7:4, conducted by Will Martin:

WM: ...the verb {SIv}, which was really interesting.

MO: That one, yes. I've wondered about that a lot. I spent a good chunk
    of one summer, one or two summers ago, - I'm not trying to make
    a pun here, but - wondering about how that works.



I've seen the second one paraphrased on this list as:

MO has said "I wonder about SIv"

which makes it sound as though he actually were making a joke.

>-- ter'eS

Sangqar


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