[3534] in tlhIngan-Hol
KLBC "Parrot"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Mar 2 14:35:55 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
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
From: shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 1994 13:52:59 -0500
In-Reply-To: mark's message of Wed, 02 Mar 94 11:57:35 EST <9403021157.A02196@d
ragonsys.COM>
>From: mark <mark@dragonsys.COM>
>Date: Wed, 02 Mar 94 11:57:35 EST
>qorvo':
>* * *
>----- When I parsed out that last sentence I got;
>jatlhlaHlaw'bogh : which is seemingly able to speak
>Ha'DIbaH : animal
>'oH : it (pronoun)
>Sajvam'e' : this Pet (Topic)
>I beleive this translates to "This pet is an animal which is seemingly
>able to speak." If I got that right, why is the pronoun 'oH needed here?
>Why not; jatlhlaHlaw' Ha'DIbah Sajvam'e'
>* * *
>Because of the way Klingon constructs copulative sentences.
>(Wipe that snicker off your face, and look it up in your Funk &
>Wagnall's!) See TKD 6.3, pp. 67-68.
Well, to spell it out a little more, Klingon needs to have a verb in the
sentence. "To be" is not a verb in Klingon, technically, but it is
expressed (when vitally necessary, nowhere near so often as it is in
English) by using the pronouns as verbs and the topic-marker "-'e'", as
described in the dictionary sections marqem mentioned. Just as in English
we need the "is" in "This pet *is* an animal", the Klingon uses a pronoun
("this pet, it is an animal"?) and the topic-marker at the end.
>OTOH, on the assumption that a Saj has to be a Ha'DIbaH, you
>could just say
>jatlhlaHlaw' Sajvam
>and be done with it.
There's always that...
>- marqem
~mark
