tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 19 13:05:23 2003
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Re: Use of {chugh}
From: "Scott Willis" <[email protected]>
> I want to say "If you must speak, speak Klingon"
> Is it better to say:
> {bIjatlhnISchugh, tlhIngan Hol yIjatlh!}
> or
> {bIjatlhnISchugh, vaj tlhIngan Hol yIjatlh!}
>
> If I were to say the first, would my point get across? Is the {vaj}
required?
Voragh has already pointed out the canon involved, but I thought I'd show a
bit about the odd grammar here.
Okrand translates "if-then" sentences several times with /X-chugh vaj Y/. I
think he was thinking too much in English, and here's why. Subordinate
clauses are allowed to come before or after the main clause, as the speaker
wishes:
bIjatlhnISchugh vaj tlhIngan Hol yIjatlh!
vaj tlhIngan Hol yIjatlh bIjatlhnISchugh!
Look at that second one carefully. That /vaj/ must be referring to
something previously established in the conversation, not to anything else
in that sentence! Therefore (heh), in the first sentence the /vaj/ there
should be doing exactly the same thing. It's not referring to
/bIjatlhnISchugh/, it's referring to something that came previously.
This doesn't match with canon usage, which is why I think Okrand was
thinking in English when those were made up. We're kind of stuck with it,
so we have to look at a different explanation: it may be, as Voragh says, a
(non-grammatical) stylistic feature of Klingon. "When using a /-chugh/
clause before its main clause, /vaj/ may be added as an adverbial to the
main clause." We don't know the Klingon justification.
But it's not required as far as we know. You are able to say
bIjatlhnISchugh tlhIngan Hol yIjatlh!
tlhIngan Hol yIjatlh bIjatlhnISchugh!
SuStel
Stardate 3137.0