tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 18 18:29:36 2009

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Question problem

Doq ([email protected])



My computer was starting more slowly than usual. I often talk to my  
computer in Klingon, since it's one of the few things or persons I  
talk to that won't complain if I speak Klingon to it.

I wanted to ask, "Why are you starting slowly?"

Suddenly, I realized that I had one grammatical slot to put two words  
in. I don't think we've been given any license to use two adverbials  
with a single verb, since adverbials don't have conjunctions like  
nouns and verbs do. Meanwhile, the question word for "why" is  
grammatically treated as an adverbial, so I'm stuck.

I could cheat:

QIt bItaghlI'. Qatlh qaS?

Any other ideas?

I mean, if we just stuffed the two adverbials together, which one goes  
first?

QIt Qatlh bItaghlI'?

Qatlh QIt bItaghlI'?

Of course the second one sounds more correct, but that's just because  
it sounds better that way in English. Would a Klingon think it works  
that way?

Doq






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