[2871] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: po puv bortaS! (translation)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Jan 30 11:07:49 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: Will Martin <whm2m@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 09:22:52 EST
On Jan 22, 8:33pm, Nick NICHOLAS wrote:
> Subject: Re: po puv bortaS! (translation)
>
> batlh choja', Amy West quv:
>
> =Hichmey tuj, Som ChuStaH,...
> Heat handguns, Noise the hulls,
Sorry, guy. It doesn't read like that at all. That would have been:
Hichmey yItujmoH, Som yIchuSmoH
I don't think it would clip quite that far. I had problems with the
{-taH} on {chuS} while it was being used adjectivally, but the line clearly
read, "Hot handguns, noisey hulls...". Without {-moH}, these are intransitive
verbs incapable of having objects, so having them follow a noun implies that
they are being used adjectivally (TKD 4.4). I know that pointing this out is
the grammarian's job, but I feel like a quick response is necessary, lest our
newer members take this as a correct correction.
> ...The best way to translate "in the morning", which, as you rightly
> surmised, is not -Daq, an explicitly spatial postposition, is "qaSDI' po".
I wonder about that. The canon is full of examples like {wa'leS jIDoy'}.
Notice that Okrand never said {qaSDI' wa'leS jIDoy'}. That construction was
created here on this list by ~mark, if I remember correctly and it was never
santified by Okrand and does not exist in canon.
In {wa'leS jIDoy'}, the first word is a noun, though it is being used
adverbally to give us a time setting. Would it not be proper to do the same
with {po}? I've always been confused as to why {DaH} is catagorized as an
adverbial, while {DaHjaj} is a noun, though the latter is almost always used
adverbially. My own expectation is that all time related nouns can be used
adverbially when they begin a sentence. I think this makes AT LEAST AS MUCH
SENSE as the {qaSDI'} based construction, and it has MORE verification in
canon.
> Nick Nicholas, Breather
-- charghwI'
