tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 16 06:37:00 2009

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

RE: tlhIngan porgh

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



Quvar:
>> > Body parts take the plural for body parts, {-Du'}.
>> > But what about the word "body part" itself? Should I say
>> >   {tlhIngan porgh 'ay'mey}
>> >      or
>> >   {tlhIngan porgh 'ay'Du'}
>> > {'ay'} is NOT a part of the body, so I guess {'ay'mey}
>> > would be correct.

Fiat Knox:
>> If /'ay'/ is the possessed and /porgh/ the possessor, surely -Du' is
>> appropriate in this instance.

lay'tel SIvten:
> {'ay'} is not a body part. It's plural is with {-mey}. I'd say {ghop
> 'ay'mey} even though they're parts of a hand, a definite body part. 
> Or {ghopDu' 'ay'mey}, 'parts of hands'.
> Does {porgh} take {-Du'}? It's not a body 'part'.

That's the question, qar'a'?  AFAIK we have no plural examples, with the possible exception of:

  pImlaw' romuluSngan be' porgh 
  I've heard Romulan women are different. (ST5 notes)

Okrand may not have been sure which suffix to use either.  Since plural suffixes are never required, this could also be translated: "A Romulan woman's body is different".

WRT to {porgh} "body", we have {porgh Hat} "body temperature", {porgh mIw} "bodily function" and  {porghQeD} "the scientific study of bodily functions (anatomy?).

As for {lom} "corpse", it also never used in the plural.  DloraH reported a conversation he had with Okrand at Praxis Con (May 1998) which shows that the choice of possessive suffix can vary depending one's point of view:

   When someone dies, if you are talking about the "person" they get
   [-wI']; and of course if you are referring to the empty shell that
   is left, it gets a [-wIj].

Perhaps the same applies to the choice of plural suffixes.

Quvar:
> I was just confused for a second. Thanks for your answer.
> porgh 'ay'mey bIH ghopDu'.

You could finesse it like Okrand did in the ST5 Notes example.  Since {bIH} "they" is plural, the predicate has to be plural whether or not it's mark with a suffix:

  porgh 'ay' bIH ghopDu''e'.


 
-- 
Voragh                          
Canon Master of the Klingons







Back to archive top level