[72] in tlhIngan-Hol
From the Desk of the *Substitute* Grammarian
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 15:21:21 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
From: Elias Israel <eli@village.boston.ma.us>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 91 23:50:12 EST
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 29 Dec 91 21:52:37 EST."
As Krankor is out on a mission for the Empire and won't be back
for a short while yet, I am going to be a substitute grammarian this
time:
Dave Cho asks:
>How do you say
> I was instructed to report here for further orders
>or
> My ship is laid up for repairs for a month
>
>I'm very confused on how Klingons say "blah blah blah for such-and-such".
First things first: in order to translate "I was ordered" with the
indefinite subject, you have to remember that when you add the lu'
suffix, the meaning of the pronomial prefixes changes. Where as "vIra'"
means "I ordered <he/she/it>", "vIra'lu'" means "I was ordered."
(See section 4.2.5, page 39)
Next, under section 6.2.5 (page 67), it notes that verbs of telling,
saying, ordering, etc., do not require the usual 'e' or net connector,
they simply follow or precede the thing that was told, ordered, etc.
Finally, section 6.2.4 (page 64) gives the syntax of sentences that have
a purpose clause ("in order to", "for the purpose of", etc.)
Thus, I get this as the translation:
ra' chu' HevmeH "in order to receive new orders"
vIra'lu' "I was ordered"
naDev jImuch'egh "I present myself here"
Note that I make the assumption that the verb ra' can be used in a noun
form.
For the second sentence, I have a problem because I don't see an
explicit instruction on durations of time. However, since durations of
time are just prepositional phrases, I think that this sentence can be
rendered in the old familiar form:
wa' jar "one month"
tI'nIS'lu' "needs to be repaired"
DujwIj "my ship"
Eli
