[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: ret

[Steven Boozer]

Gaerfindel wrote:
>> A correction: {netlh DIS law' ret tIQbe' yuQvam'e' tIQ,
>> Sornganpu' HuDnganpu' lung'a'pu' loDHompu' je toq.}
>>
>> I indicated that {yuQvam}, "this planet," was the topic by
>> adding the suffix {-'e'}.  Ergo this planet (Earth) is/was
>> inhabited by the creatures I listed. 

De'vID:
>{toq} doesn't take an object.  The way you're written the sentence makes it >look like it's being applied adjectivally to {Sornganpu' HuDnganpu' >lung'a'pu' loDHompu' je}, which doesn't seem to be part of the previous >sentence.  This is why I asked {toq 'Iv?} "who (i.e., among the tree->dwellers, mountain-dwellers, talking giant-lizards, and boys) is/are >inhabited?"  That is, which of those nouns does (the apparent adjective) >{toq} apply to?
>
>Either the punctuation is incorrect (how does everything after the {tIQ} >relate to the sentence before it?), or the sentence is missing something >(maybe it should be {tIQbe'taHvIS}?), and/or you mean something like {Dab} >rather than {toq} (in which case the subject is the creatures and the object >is the planet).  

Klingon doesn't have a true passive.  Although once can say "this planet was occupied" ({toq yuQvam}) in general, we can't say "this planet was inhabited *by X Y & Z*") specifically.  You need to restate it in the active voice "X Y & Z inhabited this planet".  For that {Dab} "inhabit, occupy" is a better fit:  {yuQvam luDab X Y Z je}.  Cf. st.k (July 1999):  

  Actually, the most common form of the question "Where do
  you live?" is not a question at all, but a command such as:
  {Daq DaDabbogh yIngu'} "Identify the place where you live"
  ... Perhaps a translation such as "Identify the place that
  you live at" or "Identify the place that you inhabit" is
  more revealing. ... It is possible, however, to respond with
  a full sentence: {Daqvam vIDab} "I live at this place",
  {pa' vIDab} "I live there", {naDev vIDab} "I live here",
  {qachvetlh vIDab} "I live in/at that building", {Qo'noS
  vIDab} "I live on Kronos". Of the three suggested ways to
  ask "Where do you live?" the first is the most acceptable:
  {nuq DaDab} "What do you inhabit? What do you dwell at?"
  ... The English translations of nuq {DaDab} are very awkward
  (from an English point of view) and don't get across the
  sense of the Klingon all that well. The less literal
  "Where do you live?" is what is really being asked. In
  Klingon, when one lives in a place or dwells in a place,
  he or she is thought of as "occupying" or "inhabiting"
  that place; not doing something at that location, but
  doing something to it (occupying it).

Some useful vocabulary WRT to habitation:
 
toq  	be inhabited (v)
chIm 	be empty/deserted/uninhabited
Dab 		reside/dwell in/at, inhabit/occupy

ngan 	inhabitant (n)
roghvaH 	population (n)


--
Voragh