tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jun 13 06:33:05 2004
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RE: inherent plurals, etc.
- From: "QeS lagh" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: inherent plurals, etc.
- Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 23:32:19 +1000
- Bcc:
ghItlhpu' Philip:
>{'eDSeHcha} - take-off / landing thrusters
>
>I imagine we can say with confidence that these are plural nouns (that
>take a singular verb) based on the fact that they appear to contain
>'cha', which is such an inherently plural noun.
jang Holtej:
>Yeah, but {cha} is "torpedoes," which doesn't really make sense.
{HolQeD}Daq wa'maH wa'DIch ja' Marc Okrand:
"Weirdly, although Maltz said he knew of no noun meaning "attitude," the
noun {lol} may show up in {lolSeHcha} <attitude control thrusters>. Although
the middle element of this word, {SeH}, is certainly the verb <control>, the
full etymology of this word is far from clear. (If the final element, {cha},
is, in fact, {cha} <torpedoes>, this may shed some light on early versions
of the device." (HolQeD 11:2, {matlh jup mu'mey})
vaj maSovchu'be', 'ach qay'be' 'e' vIHar. cha bIH <rocket>meymaj'e' wa'DIch,
'ej jorwI'mey'e' DISeHlaHbogh bIH logh Duj'a'meymaj 'eDSeHcha'e'.
{lolSeHcha' yIchu'} bIjatlhchugh, jIHvaD qay'be'. {tIchu'} Dalo'nISbe' 'e'
vIHar.
So we don't know for sure, but it makes sense to me. After all, our own
rockets were originally designed as missiles, and even now the thrusters of
bigger rockets are really controlled explosions. Either way, I don't think
there's a problem with saying {lolSeHcha' yIchu'} rather than using {tIchu'}
as one should. Even if it's not inherently plural, there's no need to treat
it as a plural IMO.
(BTW: A question I'd like to see everyone's answer to: When you say "In
HolQeD 11", where do you all put the type 5 suffix? Every time I say it I'm
tempted to use {HolQeD wa'maH wa'DIchDaq}, as though {wa'maH wa'DIch} were
an adjectival. I know we've been over this before, but I was wondering
whether you all understand it OK, and I want to know how others do it.)
Savan.
QeS lagh
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