tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Oct 02 17:48:24 2005

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Re: targhmey

MorphemeAddict ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol taghwI']

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In a message dated 10/2/2005 7:36:53 PM Central Standard Time, 
[email protected] writes:


> Personally, I would phrase this as
> 
> Sor 'emDaq targhtaH, qar'a'?
> (The targh continues to be in the tree's area-behind, right?)
> 
> and
> 
> bIQtIqDaq targhtaH, qar'a'?
> (The targh continues to be at the river, right?)
> 
> I suggest you read over TKD 6.3 (p68). It gives the example of pa'wIjDaq 
> jIHtaH for I am in my quarters. In a "to be" construction, no verb is 
> necessary. 

Verb suffixes cannot be applied to nouns, only to personal pronouns.

TKD "6.3. ``To be''
 
There is no verb corresponding to English <to be> in Klingon.
On the other hand, all pronouns (section 5.1) can be used as
verbs, in the sense of <I am, you are,> etc.
 
    {tlhIngan jIH} <I am a Klingon.> [[p.68]]
    {yaS SoH} <You are an officer.>
    {puqpu' chaH} <They are children.>
 
  The pronoun always follows the noun.
  Similarly, there is no verb corresponding to <to be> in the
sense of ``to be at a place.'' Again, the pronouns are used,
followed, where appropriate, by verbal suffixes.
 
    {pa'wIjDaq jIHtaH} <I am in my quarters.>
                       ({pa'wIjDaq} <in my room,> {jIH} <I,>
                       {-taH} <continuous>)
 
  In the above examples, the subjects are pronouns. If the
subject is a noun, it follows the third-person pronoun ({ghaH}
<he/she,> {'oH} <it,> {chaH} <they,> {bIH} <they>) and takes the {-'e'} <topic
>
suffix (see section 3.3.5).
 
    {puqpu' chaH qama'pu' 'e'} <The prisoners are children.> [[qama'pu' 'e'=>
qama'pu''e']]
    {pa'DajDaq ghaHtaH la''e'} <The commander is in his
                               quarters.>
 
These sentences might also be translated <As for the prisoners,
they are children; As for the commander, he is in his quarters.>"

So the first example becomes

Sor 'emDaq 'oHtaH'a' targh'e', qar'a'?

lay'tel SIvten

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