tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 29 00:17:28 2013

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



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

[Tlhingan-hol] 'ar again

De'vID ([email protected])



{'ar} is both "How many?" and "How much?" In most cases one of the two
will apply, and the question is unambiguous. However, in some cases
there seems to be some ambiguity.

"How many languages do you speak?" - {Hol 'ar Dajatlh?}
"How much of the language do you speak?" {Hol[vam] 'ar Dajatlh?}

For the latter sentence, I can add {-vam} to make it clear I'm talking
about one language in particular. But if I ask, {Hol 'ar Dajatlh?},
would you understand it to be a question about how many languages one
speaks, or how much of one language one speaks? This is not a
theoretical question: I recently asked this of a Klingon beginner, and
he didn't understand the question the way I intended.

"How many ships were damaged?" - {rIQ Duj 'ar?}
"How much of the ship was damaged?" - {rIQ Duj[maj] 'ar?}

Perhaps in the latter case I can ask about {DujHom} (by analogy to
{'uSHom} in the phrase from PK). But I think {DujHom} refers to a
shuttlecraft or small ship, not part of a ship. Again, adding {-maj}
or something like that to clarify I mean one ship works in the latter
case, but if I ask the question {rIQ Duj 'ar} during a battle, would
my tactical officer understand whether I was asking about the fleet,
or one particular ship?

--
De'vID

_______________________________________________
Tlhingan-hol mailing list
[email protected]
http://stodi.digitalkingdom.org/mailman/listinfo/tlhingan-hol



Back to archive top level