[1519] in tlhIngan-Hol
law' puqpu'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Sep 10 16:37:32 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: (Mark E. Shoulson) shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 15:18:38 -0400
In-Reply-To: "Matthew Whiteacre"'s message of Thu, 9 Sep 93 17:04:14 CDT <61457
.mmw8970@zeus.tamu.edu>
>From: "Matthew Whiteacre" <mmw8970@zeus.tamu.edu>
>Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 17:04:14 CDT
>X-Popmail-Charset: English
>Content-Length: 744
>On Thu, 9 Sep 93 16:48:28 -0400, Captain Krankor wrote:
>>
>>>puqbe' wa'DIch wej puqpu'ma'.
>>
>>Huh? No verb in this sentence. Translates as:
>>
>> "The first daughter our three children."
>>
>The intension was to say "Our first three children are daughters". How
>would I say this?
The problem is the lack of a Klingon copula "to be". According to Section
6.3, a "to be" copula is rendered in Klingon by the appropriate pronoun,
optionally with verb-suffixes, and the "-'e'" flag on the subject. Thus,
"wej puqma' wa'Dich chaH puqbe''e'" (no need for plural flags here, I
think).
>>>rupjajDaq qoSHeyDaj
>>
>>Again, no verb. "On tax day her apparent birthday."
>This was to be "Our due date is on tax day". Again, I could not figure out
>how to put a verb in the sentence?
Similarly, use 'oH. Not sure you need the -Daq, perhaps "tax day is the
apparent birthday", dropping the "-Daj" as well, so as not to imply that
it's your wife's birthday then. Unless you want to find another term for
"due date".
~mark
