[89423] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Arithmetic Using Units of Measure
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh)
Mon Sep 5 05:28:24 2011
From: Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh <qeslagh@hotmail.com>
To: <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 19:19:37 +1000
In-Reply-To: <BLU0-SMTP1632853E771BEA0D29AAC14D21D0@phx.gbl>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
ghItlhpu' quljIb, jatlh:
> We know how to say 7 - 3 = 4: Soch boghHa' wej, chen loS.
{boqHa'} is the word. (I don't even want to think about what {boghHa'}
means. Painful for the mother, I bet!)
> But can that be extended to working with units?
> For example, would it be possible to say << vagh cheb'a' boghHa' wej'
> cheb ngI'>>
No. boqHa' isn't simply a word that is equivalent to "minus". Arithmetic
sentences in Klingon are formulaic, but their structure is different to
English arithmetic.
boqHa' is a verb that means roughly "to dissociate oneself from, to dis-
ally oneself with, to split off from". In {vagh cheb'a' boqHa' wej cheb
ngI'}, I can't tell what's supposed to link to it, and what to the main
verb {ngI'}. If you want to try to do this, you would have to go with a
relative clause using -bogh:
vagh cheb'a' boqHa'bogh wej cheb ngI'
But even so I find it semantically weird. If you want to be more precise,
it's probably best to go with a percentage:
loS vI' jav Soch cheb'a' ngI'
"it weighs four point six seven cheb'a'"
QeS 'utlh
