tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 20 08:30:21 2003
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Re: QongDaqDaq
From: "qurgh" <[email protected]>
> You answered my question perfectly.
>
> I guess when I look at:
> tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaHbe' 'e' tob SuStel!
> I see:
> SuStel proves/is proving/will prove blah blah blah
> and not:
> SuStel proved that blah blah blah
>
> My mind doesn't see any tense at all in the setance, it just makes it a
> general something that is/has/will occur but doesn't tie it down to any
> particular time. Hence the reason I over use the aspect markers.
It doesn't HAVE tense. Time is determined purely by context, of which this
sentence has none.
> I was always told not to start a sentance with 'and', or any conjunction
> for that matter.
This is pretty much an arbitrary rule for English so far as I can see, much
like the rule that you're not allowed to split infinitives. Tell it to
biblical translators.
I see no reason to assume that Klingon can't use sentence conjunctions at
the beginning of sentences, especially when there are previous sentences in
the utterance.
> I guess I could use 'oH in there instead, and make the 'that' an 'it'
>
> tlhIngan Hol jatlh Qanqor 'ej 'oH vISov!
> Krankor speaks Klingon and I know it!
No. /'oH/ is not the right pronoun. /'e'/ is used for that.
/'oH/ MIGHT be substituting for /ngoDvam/ or something, but don't delude
yourself: you're using the wrong tool. Don't try to justify yourself out of
having to learn how to use it!
> Kosher, smosher... I want to get the meaning across, not worry about
> semantics :) but I get the idea.
Until you can get your meaning across grammatically, you're speaking a
Klingon-like language, not Klingon.
SuStel
Stardate 3139.2