tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 11 14:59:12 2006

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Re: walk two miles

QeS 'utlh ([email protected])



ghItlhpu' Voragh, ja':
>Another idea struck me:  Perhaps you break it into two clauses using the 
>distance verbs {Hop} "be remote, be far" and {Sum} "be near":
>   ? Daqvam vIleng;  cha' qelI'qam Hop.
>     I went to this place; it was 2 kellicams distant.
>   ? cha' qelI'qam Hopbogh Daq'e' vIleng.
>     I travelled to a place 2 kellicams away.

I like the idea. Unfortunately, canon also tells us that {Hop} and {Sum} are 
stative and therefore probably incapable of taking objects, as in this part 
of the interview with Okrand in HolQeD 7.4:

WM: So I could not say {raSvam vISum} to say, "I am near the table."
MO: No. You'd just say {Sum raS}. The verb {Sum} implies that the speaker is 
the one the subject is near at the time of speaking. {Hop jabwI'}. The 
waiter is far <from me> right now.
WM: Well, that resolves the conflict otherwise created if they could take 
objects. It keeps them stative, so you can say, {HIvje' Sum yItlhap}.

Which, of course, doesn't in any way resolve our question. <g>

For the time being, we may have to abandon the verb {leng} entirely, since 
its focus is on the destination of the journey, whereas we want to talk 
about the journey itself. Possibly {cha' qelI'qam chuq vIyIt} "I walked two 
kellicams' distance". (I know {yIt} is one of those verbs that 
prototypically doesn't normally take an object, but here it seems to work 
for me.)

Savan,

QeS 'utlh
tlhIngan Hol yejHaD pabpo' / Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute


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

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