tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 01 11:20:41 2004

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RE: Segh Soch mojaq <<-pu'>>

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

Quvar wrote:
> >{puq ghaH loD'e'}
> >"the man is a child"
> >
> >{puq ghaHpu' loD'e'}
> >"the man was a child"
> >[-pu' completed, since he now is adult]
> >
> >{puq ghaHpu'bogh loD'e'}
> >"the man which was a child" [??]
> >
> >{puq'e' ghaHpu'bogh loD}
> >"the child which the man was" [??!?]
> >
> >"All adults have once been kids"
> >{puqpu' chaHpu' Hoch nenwI'pu''e'}

QeS lagh:
>I don't object to this. It looks OK from my (admittedly not very 
>experienced) point of view (Maybe it just sounds weird because there are a 
>whole bunch of <pu'>s in it, but nothing's wrong with it  grammatically 
>that I can see.)

Although AFAIK Okrand has never used a Type 7 suffix other than {-taH} 
"continuous" on a pronoun-as-verb, I agree that they do seem theoretically 
possible.  They sound strange because Quvar's English isn't native.  But we 
can re-word his translations to make them sound more colloquial:

   puq ghaHpu' loD'e'
   the man used to be a child
   the man was once a child
   the man once was a child

   puq ghaHpu'bogh loD'e'
   the man who was once a child
   the man who once was a child
   the man who used to be a child

   puq'e' ghaHpu'bogh loD
   the child the man once was

I'm not sure about these last two, if only because we've never seen a 
pronoun-as-verb used with {-bogh} other than the odd-sounding:

   jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe'
   I'm lost.  TKD

In fact, I was just toying with this very construction the other day.  For 
example, a defector {cheHwI'} might be able to say:

   DIvI' rewbe' jIHpu' 'ach  DaH wo' vItoy'.
   I used to be a Federation citizen, but now I serve the Empire.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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