tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 05 13:45:55 2004

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Re: Possessive pronouns

Scott Willis ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark J. Reed" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: Possessive pronouns


> On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 01:59:52PM -0500, Scott Willis wrote:
> > "ya'll's" ("you" pl.) {-raj}
>
> Two minor spelling corrections on the English: those should be spelled
> "y'all's" (the {'} takes the place of the {ou } that is dropped from
> "you all") and "its" ("it's" can only mean "it is").

You're right. Both typos. Sorry.

> Mark
> And a couple questions, because it's been a while and I've forgotten
> a lot of this stuff:
>
> 1. ISTR (although my copy is at home and I can't look right now) that
{-Daj}
>    is glossed only as "his/her[s]" in TKD, not as "its".

False. TKD, pg 25

> Mark
> 2. How are nouns which are temporarily incapable of using language
treated?
>    For instance, my 3.5-week-old son is definitely incapable of using
>    language at the moment, but I fully expect him to be capable of using
it
>    in the future.  So is he {puqloDwIj} or {puqloDwI'}?

KGT, pg 190. Using {wIj} or {mey} when one should use {wI'} and {pu'} is an
insult, implying that the thing possessed is a lower order of being. Since
this is not anything you would say about your child, he is definitely
{puqloDlI'} "Your son".

Whether or not the individual organism is capable of using language is, to
my mind, irrelevant. The species to which your son belongs IS capable of
language. It is for this reason that mutes also take {-pu'} and {wI'}, IMO.

And I wouldn't take this too literally. In TKW, pg 197 reads:

{veqlarghlI' yIbuS, 'ej veqlarghwI' vIbuS}
"You pay attention to your Fek'lhr and I will pay attention to mine."

Here, as the Fek'lhr is a mythological beast, it would be impossible to
confirm that it can, indeed, use language. For me, {-wI'} and {-pu'} are
more a verbal nod to sentience.

All that being said, there is a noun, {qaryoq}, meaning a bird capable of
mimicing speech. Most use {-mey} when pluralizing it, but some use {-pu'}.

So there's not always agreement, apparently, among even Klingons when it
comes to this concept.
(I would use {-mey}, because there's no realization of what the bird is
saying on the part of the bird. He's just making sounds.)

--ngabwI'
Beginners' Grammarian,
Klingon Language Institute
http://kli.org/
HovpoH 701003.9

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