tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 22 16:36:50 2005

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Re: Subtle shadings of "then": Okrand's error ?

QeS lagh ([email protected])



Okay, it looks like Fek'lhr struck a couple of times in my previous post... 
so I'll get my replacement proverbs out of the way now, and be the BG for my 
own message.

DopDaq qul yIchenmoH QobDI' ghu'.

jIjatlh:

>Daj mugh 'oHbe'. mughDaj 'oH tlhIngan Hol mu'tlhegh'e'. bom mu'mey mugh 'e' 
>nID, 'ach bom mu'vetlh qonpu' latlh nuv (Ray Charles'e' qonta').

I'll start with the easy ones first.

As pointed out by DloraH and juDmoS, {mugh} is not a noun. I was merely too 
lazy to look it up. I had taken it from lay'SIv's previous message, 
{qay'law' mughDaj neH}. Nevertheless, the error remains mine; I'm supposed 
to be in the position to catch things like that.

Next: DloraH is also right on target with {Ray Charles'e' qonta'}. I'd 
intended to say something like "It was Ray Charles who composed them". That 
being said, couldn't {-'e'} also be used to *change* the focus of the 
discussion (that is, mark a new topic), rather than just emphasise whatever 
the topic is at the moment? Or is that stretching it?

Finally, that little matter of {Daj mugh}. ghunchu'wI' is correct: this was 
an intentional error that I used for emphasis. A similar construct has been 
attested in canon (i.e. {wIj jup} "friend mine" - KGT p.40), although on 
rereading, that might be restricted to addressing people. Again, I 
erroneously treated {mugh} as a noun; this wasn't intended to be some weird 
verb-verb construct.

So in all: HIvqa' veqlargh. I may have to take down my shingle.

ja'pu' juDmoS:

>Ah, so while not entirely thorough, I was nonetheless essentially 
>correct...a word "string" is a >sentence...

We also have the word {vIttlhegh} "proverb" (= "truth rope"), undoubtedly 
formed by analogy with {mu'tlhegh}.

Savan,

QeS lagh
taghwI' pabpo'qoq / Beginner's So-Called Grammarian


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

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