tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 20 12:45:22 2004

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Re: Klingon WOTD: toy'wI''a' (n)

De'vID jonwI' ([email protected]) 

lay'tel:
>>It definitely *sounds* more Okrandian with {-chugh}.  As far as I can 
>>tell,
>>Okrand has never used {pagh} in this sense of "or (else)".

Voragh:
>   bISoptaH pagh bItlhutlhtaH
>   You are either eating or else you are drinking. TKD
>
>   taH pagh taHbe'
>   "To be or not to be." ST6/KGT
>
>   taQ pagh taQbe'
>   To be weird or not to be weird. KGT (p.194)
>
>   HeghDI' tlhIngan SuvwI' pagh tlhIngan SuvwI' HoHlu'DI'
>   When a Klingon warrior dies or is killed... S31
>
>   vIpollaH pagh vIpolHa'laH
>   I can either keep it or I can discard it. KGT
>
>   DapollaH pagh DapolHa'laH
>   You can either keep it or you can discard it. KGT

But none of these sentences are using <pagh> in the sense of
"or (else)" seen in, for example, "Buy or die!"  In English,
"X or (else) Y" can mean "if you don't X, then you will Y".  This
is an idiomatic usage that doesn't necessarily carry across to
other languages.  (For example, "or" in Chinese doesn't have
this connotation.  If you say "You will buy or you will die",
you're saying that one or the other will happen, but there's
no implication that failure to do the one will result in the
other.)

To illustrate what I mean, take a look at:
>   bISoptaH pagh bItlhutlhtaH

This does *not* mean "If you don't eat, you will drink".
Compare:

    bISoptaHbe'chugh vaj bItlhutlhtaH
    You'll eat or (else) you'll drink!

A host might say this if he's concerned that a guest will
leave his party without consuming anything.  The only canon
examples that I can think of right now where this sense of
"or (else)" is intended use the <-be'chugh vaj> formula:

<bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh> "Surrender or die!"
<bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh> "Buy or die!"

There were probably others.

--
De'vID

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