tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Oct 02 22:32:04 2005

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Re: targhmey

QeS lagh ([email protected])



ghItlhpu' Bryan, ja':
>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?)

As lay'tel SIvten has ably pointed out, only pronouns may take verb suffixes 
(and only personal pronouns at that - so {'e'} and {net} can't, either), and 
only when they're acting in the pronoun-as-verb construct. {targh} is not a 
verb.

In addition, you'd only use {qar'a'} if you expected the answer "yes" - 
what's called a leading question. If you didn't expect any answer in 
particular, you'd just say {Sor 'emDaq 'oHtaH'a' targh'e'} "is the targ 
behind the tree?". (If you read my response to naHQun's original question, 
and KGT p.34, you'll get the idea.)

jang lay'tel SIvten, ja':
>So the first example becomes
>Sor 'emDaq 'oHtaH'a' targh'e', qar'a'?

Not quite. Check out KGT p.34 and TKD p.179. {qar'a'} follows a statement, 
not another question:

{qarDaSnganpu' HIvpu' qar'a' tlhInganpu'} "the Klingons have attacked the 
Cardassians, right?"
{qarDaSnganpu' HIvpu' tlhInganpu' qar'a'} (same again)

It behaves the same as the English: we say "the targ is behind the tree, 
right?", and not *"Is the targ behind the tree, right?".

QeS la'
taghwI' pabpo' / Beginners' Grammarian


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

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