tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 30 17:30:19 2004

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Re: (?) interrogative suffix on imperatives?

QeS lagh ([email protected])



ghItlhpu' lay'tel SIvten:

>An example of an imperative with a relative pronoun is the English phrase 
>"which see" and its corresponding Latin equivalent "quod vide" (of "q.v." 
>fame).

I don't know that the English phrase is entirely relevant; it seems to me to 
just be a translation of the Latin, and I'd find the use of "which see" in 
normal conversation weird, if not outright impossible. But I must say that 
the Latin version is interesting. How applicable is this relative imperative 
in Latin?

Although, it does call up the problem that in Latin, it's the free pronoun 
(emphasis on "free") that is relative, which means that the verb is free to 
take on whatever role it wishes - in essence, treating the relative pronoun 
as just another pronoun. In Klingon, it's the verb that's relative, so 
whether the verb can be imperative or not might well be conditioned by the 
presence of the suffix {-bogh}.

>So it CAN make sense, under the right circumstances.

Agreed. Well spotted.

>And the Klingon equivalent may be >yIleghbogh<.

But would it be understood as having the same meaning as "quod vide"? 
Remember, too, that relative clauses (except for a couple of bizarre 
examples) require head nouns. I just can't wrap my head around ??{Doch 
yIleghbogh} "the thing which see".

QeS lagh



not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' qan je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
     - Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh

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