tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 11 14:37:22 2006

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Re: Klingon WOTD: bej (verb)

QeS 'utlh ([email protected]) 

ghItlhpu' Voragh, ja':
>The verb {bej} literally means "watch", though its slang usage is probably
>influenced by the verb suffix {-bej} ("certainly, undoubtedly";

I recently had this epiphany, which I'd like to share.

The Terran language Pirahã, spoken in the Amazon basin, has a large series 
of verbal evidential constructions (more or less equivalent to the Type 6 
suffixes of Klingon). One of these is /-xáagahá/, which communicates the 
idea that the speaker saw the action with their own eyes. Viz:

Pirahã: hoagaxóai hi páxai kaopápisaixáagahá
English: Hoagaxóai caught a páxai-fish (I know because I saw it)

The suffix /-xáagahá/ is actually a compound suffix, composed of /-xáaga/ 
"to be (a permanent state or quality)" and another evidential, /-há/, which 
means "definitely, certainly". So in Pirahã, there has been a shift from "to 
be certain" > "to watch, to have seen".

In Klingon, I think it happened the other way around. Back when Klingon was 
less agglutinative than it is now, I think the verb suffix {-bej} was 
actually just the verb {bej} "to watch", and the {X 'e' vIbej} construction 
became idiomatic for "certainly" (viz. "I saw it, therefore I think it's 
certain"). Eventually Klingons would just tack it on as a verb suffix. Since 
it's now a fully-fledged suffix, and it no longer carries the meaning of "to 
watch", the construction {X 'e' vIbej} is now free to occur again in modern 
Klingon.

In short, from an etymological point of view, it may be impossible to 
separate {bej} "to watch" and {-bej} "definitely".

</theory>

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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