[Tlhingan-hol] Beginner Story: nuq bop bom 'ay''a' wej

[Qov]

I'd mentioned that a smart lurking beginner (he wouldn't accept the 
label "intermediate" when I tried to stick it on him) was working 
through my story summaries and now he's got me with something I've 
been doing for years, but I now suspect may be a hypercorrection: The 
first sentence is mine and then we go back and forth discussing it.

>>meHDaq DeghwI', yaS wa'DIch, Hung yaS je lutu'lu'.
>>
>>First officer, security officer and helmsman notice someone on the 
>>bridge. (why yaS wa'DIch, not wa'DIch yaS ?)
>
>It's yaS wa'DIch because Klingons put the number afterwards. They 
>just do. That's why it's qep'a' wa'maH chorghDIch, for 18th qep'a', too.
>
>
>>perhaps "are on the bridge" ? That would make more sense I think.
>
>"are on the bridge" is correct. This is the normal way to say it. I 
>think the phrase in TKD is naDev tlhInganpu' lutu'lu' = there are 
>Klingons around here.
>
>
>Actually I think you made mistake here, sort of. According to TKD 
>correct phrase is naDev tlhInganpu tu'lu'. And explanation says:
>
>" When used with the verb {tu'} <find, observe> and a third-[[keep 
>hyphen]] person singular subject pronoun (0), the resulting verb 
>form {tu'lu'} <someone/something finds it> is often translated by 
>English <there is.> "
>
>tu' means find observe. with -lu' it means someone finds/observe 
><none/him/her/it/them>. lutu'lu' means that more people 
>finds/observe <him/her/it/>. So I think prefix lu- is wrong here and 
>there's no need for prefix anyway.

So I drew in breath to explain and then read it very carefully. Is 
Marc saying here that the form with tu'lu' is invariably used with 
the 3rd person singular pronoun, and then demonstrating that it is, 
with a third person plural object?  Has he ever used lutu'lu'? Is it 
just me? Or is this just more proof of the fact that we always need 
fresh blood reading the same words to learn more?

Anyway, if he doesn't want to introduce himself I won't out him, but 
you can see he looks smarter than me about now.

- Qov 
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