[3103] in tlhIngan-Hol
prefixes on pronouns
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Feb 10 10:15:24 1994
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
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From: shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 10:06:52 -0500
In-Reply-To: Captain Krankor's message of Wed, 9 Feb 94 18:17:29 -0700 <9402100
114.AA11142@codex.com>
>From: Captain Krankor <krankor@codex.prds.cdx.mot.com>
>Date: Wed, 9 Feb 94 18:17:29 -0700
>How would you say: "Stop whining and be a Klingon!"
>I submit:
>bIvIngtaH 'e' yImev 'ej tlhIngan yISoH!
>Yep, there is no proper defense of it, and, when pushed, I'll readily admit
>it is technically illegal. But it's clear, elegant, and there's just no
>other way to do it. Frankly, I think Okrand would sanction it if it were
>brought before him. Again, I'm willing to look the other way on this one.
Sorry, Krankor, I have to agree with charghwI' here. No way am I going to
accept this one. "tlhIngan yIDa" is the best way to express this; that's
why the Holy Blissful Grammarian gave us "Da".
More and more I'm coming to think that *if* the pronouns were normal verbs
(they aren't), it would work something like this: Let's say the root of the
verb is X; then we have irregular conjugations for all the parts: "vI-X"
takes the form "jIH", "Da-X" takes the form "SoH", "DI-X" is "maH", "bo-X"
is "tlhIH", and adding on the assorted zero-prefixes for the third-person
cases gives us "ghaH", "'oH", "chaH", and "bIH". So "*yISoH" sounds to me
almost like "yIDa-X", which is too many prefixes. OK, this *isn't* how the
verb works, and I'm not proposing that it is, but I think it's a useful way
to think of things sometimes.
> --Krankor
~mark
