tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 08 20:50:43 2010

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Re: qoSwIj

Steven Lytle ([email protected])



Okrand says {pIq} "follows the noun specifying the length of time involved",
but that presupposes that there is a noun which specifies the length of time
involved; when there is such a noun, {pIq} follows it. It doesn't address
the issue of when there is no such noun.
lay'tel SIvten
On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Steven Boozer <[email protected]> wrote:

> [email protected] wrote:
> >> Second, and more importantly, I can't figure out how to say "in the
> >> future". I've found {pIq} which seems to convey the meaning of future,
> >> but that is a noun and I can't find a way to convert it appropriately.
> >>       [...]
> >>   pIq pab qab vIlo'be'taH.
> >>
> >> Remaining issue: is {pIq} a good way to say "future"? Or is it used in
> >> a more specific sense?
>
> SuStel:
> >It has never been used that way, but it does make sense. Some have
> >objected, saying that you have to use it in conjunction with a time
> >period, but this has not actually been established.
>
> Okrand writes (HolQeD 8.3:2-3) that:
>
>  It [{pIq}] follows the noun specifying the length of time involved,
>  as in {cha' tup pIq} "two minutes from now".  [...]  These words
>  follow the more specific time units. For example, "two minutes ago"
>  is {cha' tup ret}, literally "two minute time-period-ago."  "Two
>  minutes from now" is {cha' tup pIq}.  (It is also possible, though
>  not necessary, to use the plural suffixes with the time units if
>  there is more than one of them: {cha' tupmey ret}, {cha' tupmey pIq}.)
>
>  The words {ret} and {pIq} could also be used with days, months, and
>  years (e.g., {wej jaj ret} "three days ago," rather than {wejHu'},
>  but utterances of these are not particularly common, sound a bit
>  archaic, and are usually restricted to rather formal settings.
>
>
> N.B.  "It follows the noun specifying the length of time involved ... These
> words follow the more specific time units."
>
> Not "may follow", "usually follow", "often follow", etc.  Sounds pretty
> definite to me.
>
> Presumably it works like {ben} "years ago, years old" and related time
> nouns which have never been used by Okrand without a number jut by
> themselves.  A pity really.  I (and others) have been known to write *{ben
> law'(qu')} when rendering "(very) many years ago", "in the (remote) past",
> "once upon a time", and the like.
>
> I admit, though, that he doesn't say that the time unit is *never* omitted.
>  (Okrand always leaves himself a loophole! <g>)
>
>
> --
> Voragh
> Canon Master of the Klingons
>
>
>
>
>






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