tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 22 17:25:11 2009
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Prefixes not agreeing
Steven Lytle wrote:
> "mapum" doesn't mean 'fall'. It means "we fall" (or "we accuse"; "pum" is
> two different verbs). There is no point in losing information that is given
> in the original just because the translation is odd.
> In fact, "mapum Sor" could be interpreted as "We trees fall", although this
> use of a noun as subject with a non-third-person prefix is controversial at
> best.
At best. The utter lack of any such occurrence in Klingon, and a
grammatical sketch whose rules are at odds with the notion, make this
idea very much part of the realm of wishing. English has a convenient
sort of pronoun-noun apposition, and they people think they see a way to
reproduce it in Klingon.
I don't say "controversial" means "ungrammatical," but this practice is
based on absolutely zero evidence.
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