tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 11 13:29:28 2009

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RE: Yet another newbie!

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



Voragh:
>> Andre is right, using {-tah} on the pronoun is generally
>> used when stating location:
>>
>>   bIQ'a'Daq 'oHtaH 'etlh'e'
>>   The sword is in the ocean. KGT

ter'eS:
> But not with negatives? ?{bIQ'a'Daq 'oHbe' 'etlh'e'}

That's an interesting question.  AFAIK we don't have any examples of {PRONOUNtaHbe'} or {PRONOUNbe'taH} in the corpus, whether referring to location or not.

The closest I could find was this odd expression from the TKD list of useful expressions: 

  jIHtaHbogh naDev vISovbe' 
  I'm lost.   TKD

This has also been translated as "I don't know the area around here that I'm at" (by qoror).

You can certainly negate an equational sentence (i.e. A is not B) using the pronoun-as-verb:

  tajwIj 'oHbe' chorlIj jeqbogh Dochvetlh'e' 
  That is not my dagger protruding from your midsection. FTG

  SajlIj 'oHbe' quvwIj'e'. 
  My honor is not your play-thing. 
  ("My honor is not your pet.") (STConst p.259)

A possible variant for a negated pronoun-as-verb marking location is by using {tu'lu'} "there are, there is".  Note BTW the variant location of the Rover suffix {-be'} "not":

  QuvlIjDaq yIH tu'be'lu'jaj 
  May your coordinates be free of tribbles! PK

  SuvwI'pu' qan tu'lu'be' 
  There are no old warriors. TKW

So how do we say "The Great Hall is not there"?:

  ? pa' 'oHtaHbe' vaS'a''e'.  
  ? pa' 'oHbe'taH vaS'a''e'

The variants with {tu'lu'} seem fairly clear:

  pa' vaS'a' tu'lu'be'.
  pa' vaS'a' tu'be'lu'.

but it's not clear (to me at least) what, if anything, is the difference in meaning between the two.


-- 
Voragh                          
Canon Master of the Klingons







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