[6] in tlhIngan-Hol

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From the Grammarian's Desk

dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 15:15:07 1992

Date: Fri, 9 Aug 91 22:06:09 -0400
From: ima.ima.isc.com!krankor@village.boston.ma.us (Captain Krankor)
To: tlhIngan-Hol@IMA.ISC.COM


John Whelan's recent introductory letter provides examples of two common
mistakes to watch out for (ones I've made myself on occasion).

First, remember that conjunctions joining nouns are postfix, that is, they
occur *after* the nouns they join (5.3, page 55). Thus, "the captain and the officers"
would be: HoD yaSpu' je
not:      HoD je yaSpu'

Presumably, therefore, a list of such things would take only one conjunction,
at the end.  So "they speak French and German and Klingon and Vulcan"
would be: French German tlhIngan Hol vulqangan Hol je jatlh chaH

The use of only one conjunction actually makes some sense; note that the
English sentence could easily have been rendered as "they speak French, 
German, Klingon, and Vulcan".

Secondly, there's a tiny rule that's easy to overlook (4.2.5, page 39)
regarding the use of verb prefixes when the verb suffix lu' is used.
The first and second person subject/third person object prefixes are
used to indicate first and second person object.  That means that
"One knows me there" (or, more smoothly, "I am known there" or
"They (indefinate) know me there")
would be: pa' vISovlu'

In particular, you don't use the no-object prefixes, thus it is
not: pa' jISovlu'

Thus, when John says: Arthur Dent vIrur jIja'lu', he means
Arthur Dent vIrur vIja'lu' ("One says to me I resemble Arthur Dent", or
more smoothly, "People tell me I look like Arthur Dent").

Still, all in all, a nicely written letter. majQa'!  So let's hear from
some more of you!

			Captain Krankor, Grammarian

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