[86249] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: {pagh Doch} or {pagh Dochmey}? (Fwd: [Question #76058]: Klingon plural expression is this: Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n > 1)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ghunchu'wI')
Sat Jul 11 21:44:01 2009
In-Reply-To: <800566130907111813v74de2fcey5b02845e4ba3944f@mail.gmail.com>
From: "ghunchu'wI'" <qunchuy@alcaco.net>
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:41:15 -0400
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
On Jul 11, 2009, at 9:13 PM, pm5 wrote:
> I was [proposing][1] a Klingon plural expression in [Launchpad
> translation][2], so they can setup the system to help translating
> software into Klingon. I was asked to verify that "zero things" in
> Klingon is {pagh Doch} instead of {pagh Dochmey}.
I would probably never say {pagh Dochmey}. "Zero" is not more than
one thing. I often leave off the plural suffix when counting things
explicitly anyway. For something like a count of computer files I
think I prefer it that way:
0 file
1 file
2 file
The only time a plural suffix is "required" is when distinguishing
between the "each" and "all" meanings of {Hoch}:
{Hoch ta} "each record"
{Hoch tamey} "all records"
-- ghunchu'wI'
