tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 10 06:57:17 2009

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RE: qIpmeH Qatlh'a'?

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



Voragh:
>> I expected more, but I could only find 3 examples of {-'a'} on a
>> quality:
>>
>>   qIpmeH Qatlh'a'?
>>   Difficult to hit?  ST5

SuStel:
>And in this case the entire sentence is suspect, because it's wrong. It
>literally means something like, "Is it [the probe] being difficult so
>that I may hit it?" Okrand forgot that {-meH} represents a purpose
>clause, not every English infinitive. More appropriate would have been
>something like, {Qatlh'a' qIpmeH 'eb} "Is the opportunity for hitting
>difficult?"

Actually, the original line was {wIqIpmeH Qatlh'a'}.  It's possible the actor mis-spoke and omitted - clipped? - the prefix.  This line appears in Okrand's article about Klingon lines from scenes in an earlier draft of the script missing from the final cut (see (HolQeD 8.4:12-13).  Here's the relevant part of my ST5 transcript:


KLAA:   qIpmeH Qatlh'a'?                 [heard]
       [wIqIpmeH Qatlh'a']              [script]
       (Difficult to hit?)            [subtitle]


--
Voragh                          
Canon Master of the Klingons







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