[87600] in tlhIngan-Hol
RE: qoSwIj
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Boozer)
Tue Jan 5 15:44:27 2010
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
To: "'tlhingan-hol@kli.org'" <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:41:28 -0600
In-Reply-To: <4B426F91.5020601@trimboli.name>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Thorwald:
>>> DaHjaj'e' 'oH qoSwIj 'e' }}:-)
kff@sics.se:
>> But what is the function of the last {'e'}? I parse the stuff before
>> that as 'My birthday is *today*', which seems perfectly logical and
>> sufficient to my meagre knowledge of Klingon grammar.
SuStel:
>The correct way to say "My birthday is today" is {DaHjaj 'oH qoSwIj'e'}.
>The {-'e'} is required in any "to be" sentence.
>
>I suspect Thorwald meant to emphasize the "today," as you guess above,
>but then you'd have to put {-'e'} on two different [noun]s in the
>sentence, and that'd be weird. We don't know if that kind of thing is
>allowed.
marqoS:
| Agreed, it seems odd to have two topics. Does the -'e' in copula
| sentences have any emphatic force left? If so, just making the noun
| you want to emphasize the topic would seem to work here. But it could
| be that the -'e' is pure syntax at this point, in which case I'm not
| sure how one would go about adding emphasis.
>I believe that {-'e'} is performing its primary function, which is
>topicalization. "Let's talk about my birthday. It is today."
Although I haven't found any examples, if Thorwald wants to add emphasis to the copula sentence - without simply using an exclamation point that is! - he could probably add the suffix (-qu'} "emphatic" or {-bej} "certainly, undoubtedly, definitely") to the pronoun.
For extra emphasis, both suffixes can be used together:
maHeghbejqu'
It's certain death. (ST5 notes)
So:
DaHjaj 'oH qoswIj'e'.
DaHjaj 'oHbej qoswIj'e'!
DaHjaj 'oHqu' qoswIj'e'!!
DaHjaj 'oHbejqu' qoswIj'e'!!!
If you're not comfortable adding suffixes to a pronoun, use the verb {lop} "celebrate":
DaHjaj qoSwIj vIlopbejqu'!!!
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons
