tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 30 15:26:26 2004

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Re: KLBC -meH

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Dar'Qang:
>Although it's most likely that I am simply not seeing something, it has 
>now occurred to me that possibly Dr. Okrand originally intended for the 
>-meH clause to be more restrictive, but then backed off for some 
>reason.  The Klingonska Akademien page cites TKD for the "truce" 
>example.  It might be interesting to see TKD examples, or examples that 
>use something like {ja'chuqmeH rojHom} in a full sentence.

Most of these "{-meH} noun phrases" are just known as isolated examples, e.g.:

{SuvwI' DevmeH paq} "A Warrior's Guide" ( or "guidebook") TKW

{qa'meH vIttlhegh} "replacement proverb" (derived from {quvqa'meH 
vIttlhegh") (HQ 5.1)

{SopmeH pa'} "dining room, eating room" (st.klingon)

{HoS QaymeH 'och} "power transfer conduit" KBoP

{Qapchu'meH 'aqroS chuq}  "Maximum Effective Range"  KBoP

but I did manage to find three:

   tera' vatlh DIS poH cha'maH loS bong QongmeH qItI'nga' Duj tI'ang
   ghompu' DIvI' 'ejDo' 'entepray'
   A sleeper ship of this [K'Tinga] class, the T'Ong, was encountered
   in the 24th century by the USS Enterprise. S15

{QongmeH Duj} "a sleeper ship"

   ngongmeH wa' DujDaq nuHmey nISbe'bogh So'wI' jomlu'pu'
   [A cloaking device which didn't disrupt weapons was installed in one
   experimental ship.] S33 (untranslated on card)

{ngongmeH Duj} "experimental ship, prototype"

Hmm... notice the position of {wa'}; I would have expected ?{wa' ngongmeH 
DujDaq...}.  (It's hard to tell exactly what's going on here because the 
English translation was inadvertently omitted on the card.)

   tlhIngan juHqo'Daq tlhIng yoSDaq 'oH toQDuj chenmoHlu'meH Daq wa'DIch'e'
   1st Construction Site: The Kling District, Klingon Home World.  (KBoP)

{chenmoHlu'meH Daq} "construction site" (you can form these with {-lu'} as 
well).  Although the English isn't, the Klingon is a grammatically complete 
sentence.

Hmm... I just noticed how the {-Daq} is repeated in the two-part 
location.  I don't know if this is a requirement of style, or if the 
meaning is something like "the first construction site of the Bird-of-Prey 
is in the Kling District, on the Klingon Homeworld".

I think the consensus on how these type of noun phrases work is like this:

This canon sentence contains a purpose clause:

   cha'puj vIngevmeH chaw' HInobneS.
   Give me a permit to sell dilithium, your honor. PK
   ("Give me a permit for me to sell dilithium...")

You can tell it's a subordinate clause because {ngev} has the object prefix 
{vI-}.  But if we modify it by removing the prefix, then it becomes a 
{-meH}ed noun phrase (or "purpose noun" if you prefer), and the entire 
phrase is the object of {nob}:

   ?cha'puj ngevmeH chaw' HInobneS.
    Give me a permit to sell dilithium, your honor. PK
   ("Give me a dilithium selling permit ...")

The finer points of using these "purpose nouns" is one of the things we 
still need to discuss with Maltz.

[Does anyone know of any more of these used in a sentence?]



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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