tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 18 19:01:03 2013

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] tlhoS

Robyn Stewart ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

lab QeS:
---
ghItlhpu' Alex, jatlh:
> I just heard that there is an adverbial, {tlhoS} "almost, nearly, 
> virtually, not quite" (adv). It's perfect - I needed just this word - but
I have to know:
> are there any special instructions for its use in a sentence? Or is it 
> straightforward enough to just bung it in the sentence before the 
> regular {OVS} construction like {jaS} and {nom} and {pe'vIl}?

Yep, it should behave like any other ordinary adverb in that regard; there's
no indication in KGT that it's one of the odd ones (which remain limited to
only neH, jay' and je).

taH:
> I was thinking along the lines of wondering whether it could be used 
> like {neH} to modify a noun - *{loD tlhoS ghaH puqloDlI''e'} Your son 
> is almost a man*;

Not that I know of, and in any case it strikes me as really bizarre. If you
stick any other verb at all in there, you'll see its full weirdness. *{loD
tlhoS qIpta' puq} *"the child hit the almost-man"? Awful.
---
I read it loD tlhoS qIpta' puq as loD'e' tlhoS qIpta' puq, i.e. the child
almost hit the man, which suggests that what Alex was thinking was loD'e'
tlhoS ghaH puqloDlI''e'.  I don't see that as significantly different than
tlhoS loD ghaH puqloDlI''e'.

Either, however, suggests to me that the speaker suggests the listener's son
is an abomination not rightfully deserving of the appellation "man." It's
something you'd say to Frankenstein to complement him on his monster, if he
were referring to it as his son. For the idea Alex wants, I recommend loD
mojlI' puqloDlI'. or nenbejlI' puqloDlI'.

In unrelated news, if there are some semi-beginners there who would like to
practice writing simple sentences in Klingon, and do a service to the
Klingon Language at the same time, please e-mail me. Include a sample of
five or ten of the kinds of sentence that you can confidently write.

- Qov


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