tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 22 23:06:37 2003
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KLBC: WOTD: lurSa' (n)
Voragh gave us S26:
>DuraS tuq tlhIngan yejquv patlh luDub 'e' reH lunIDtaH DuraS be'nI'pu'
>lurSa' be'etor je.
>The sisters of the House of Duras, Lursa and B'Etor, are constantly seeking
>a higher standing for the House of Duras within the Klingon High Council.
For beginners, this might look like a very long sentence, but actually this sentence is simple.
The most confusing could be the object of the first part:
{DuraS tuq tlhIngan yejquv patlh}
This is a noun-noun construction, more accurately it's a noun-noun-noun-noun-noun-construction
I'll explain this step by step:
{DuraS tuq} is the "house of Duras", or "Duras' house".
{tlhIngan yejquv} is the klingon high council, literally "klingon's honored council"
{patlh} means "rank".
{tlhIngan yejquv patlh} (literally "klingon high council's rank") is then "the rank of the high council", more fluently translated as
"standing within the Klingon High Council"
All this put together, we get a long worm describing the "rank" of the "house of Duras" within the "klingon high council", literally
"Duras' house's klingon-high-council-rank" - {DuraS tuq tlhIngan yejquv patlh}
What now follows is a verb, {luDub} "they improve it".
Shortly this is just {patlh luDub} "they improve the rank"
Now let's go to the next part, which shows us that this is a Sentence As Object construction: {... 'e' reH lunIDtaH ...} "they are
always continuously trying that."
Shortly this is {patlh luDub 'e' lunID} "they try to improve the rank" or "they improve the rank, they try that"
The subject for this verb (the one who's trying), is of course the Duras sisters.
Actually, "the sisters of Duras", and this a noun-noun construction again: {DuraS be'nI'pu'} followed by {lurSa' be'etor je}, and
this just means "Lursa and B'etor"
Again, a shortened form of the sentence, but including all the parts is that:
{patlh luDub 'e' lunID DuraS be'nI'pu'}
"the sisters of duras try to improve the rank"
Now, this doesn't look so heavy anymore, does it? :-)
Quvar
Beginners' Grammarian
ghojwI'pu' wI' vISaH