tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Mar 19 13:33:40 2010
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: A phrase for the love of Klingons!
Voragh:
>> You're thinking in English. You don't need {-ta'} on {ghaH}, it's just a
>> simple past tense (he was a Klingon, he is a Klingon, etc.). We do have a
>> single example of a perfective suffix on a pronoun:
>> pa' jIHpu'be'
>> I wasn't there. TKD
>> so if you insist on making it perfective, you can use {-pu'}. OTOH {-ta'}
>> "accomplished" implies that "an activity was deliberately undertaken, the
>> implication being that someone set out to do something and in fact did
>> it" (TKD 41). For that matter is a pronoun-as-verb actually an "activity"
>> (which I take to mean an action verb, not a quality)?
>>
>> Now that you've dropped the {-ta'} you can highlight the contrast with
>> {-law'} "apparently" by using another Type 6 suffix like {-ba'}
>> "obviously" or {-bej} "certainly, undoubtedly, definitely".
>>
>> Also consider other verbs: e.g. {Da} "behave as, act in the manner of",
>> {ghet} "pretend", {Qaq} "behave falsely honorably, behave in a falsely
>> honorable manner":
>> tlhIngan ghaH 'e' vIHar 'ach verengan Da bangwI''e'!
qurgh:
>The way I interpreted it was that she wanted to believe he was Klingon
>and it had been accomplished in her mind but, due to the new things she
>has seen, she doubting herself and now sees him as a Ferengi. She is
>saying this line to him as an insult and is being slightly sarcastic at
>the same time.
>
>According to TKD the aspect suffix affects the whole sentence, not just
>the verb in the first part:
> tlhIngan ghaHta' bangwI''e' vIHar
> I believe my beloved is a Klingon <-
>This act, which she set out to do, had been accomplished.
>But new information is causing her to doubt this situation.
That's pretty much what I figured, but {ghaHta'} is still causing me pause. (BTW, is belief an act which one can "set out to do"? I think it just happens, so I'd still use {-pu'} if I would use an aspectual suffix at all.)
> Maybe I'm off base, anyone got a third opinion?
Perhaps contrasting {ngugh} "then, at that time" with {DaH} "now" works better:
ngugh tlhIngan ghaH bangwI''e' 'e' vIHar ...
Of course, we're getting further and further away from the original line: "I fell in love with a Klingon, not a Ferengi!"
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons