[Tlhingan-hol] chIjwI' tIQ bom: {baQ} {DeH} je

[Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh]

jIghItlhpu', jIjatlh:
> chIrgh leng wIlengtaHvIS maH tay' 
> mutlhejqangchugh nuv QaQ, 
> Dunqu'; jIHvaD lengvetlh 'ey DeH 
> SawwI' 'uQ'a' 'ey baQ! 

mujang De'vID, jatlh:
> It may just be me, but I read {wIlengtaHvIS maH mutlhej nuv} as "a  
> person accompanies *us* while *we* travel", i.e., the {maH} excludes  
> the (additional) companion.  Even with {maH tay'}, I'm inclined to  
> interpret this as the speaker already being a part of a group, which is  
> then accompanied by an additional person.  Otherwise, the additional  
> companion would be {tlhej}ing him/herself, which doesn't quite work in  
> my mind. 

I'm a little surprised to hear that. {mu-} isn't one of the prefixes that
is defective for number: {mutlhej} can only mean "he/she/it/they accompany
*me*". "X accompanies *us*" would be {nutlhej}.

taH:
> Also, why do you use {chIrgh leng} rather than just {chIrgh}?  IIRC  
> (and I may be wrong about this) {wI-} on {leng} indicates that the  
> object is the destination, so {chIrgh leng wIleng} would mean "we walk  
> to the church trip", where "church trip" is the destination.

Yep, normally that's right. To be honest, the cognate accusative seemed
natural - one can yIn a tlhIngan yIn, so it seemed to come easily that one
can leng a chIrgh leng.

The other thing is that the next verse repeats the line "To walk together
to the kirk". So that verse needs to reuse the same line. But it's pretty
strained as it is:

chIrgh leng wIlengtaHvIS maH tay' -
Qunma' wIQummeH He;
QunvaD matorlaHmeH maH Hoch,
wIvuvmeH; qup, ghu, chaj, maqoch,
Quchqu'bogh loD be' je!

To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,
While each to his great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay!


My first version actually did use {chIrghDaq}, but my test audience (i.e.
Qov, who kindly read and commented on the poem in its entirety) couldn't
parse {Qunma' wIQummeH He} on first pass. I changed {chIrghDaq} to {chIrgh
leng} to make it clear that the {Qunma' wIQummeH He} was the journey to
the church.

I'll have to go away and think about this. My Klingon brain can't see a
problem with {leng tIq vIlengpu'} "I have travelled a long journey", and
especially so in a poetic context.

QeS 'utlh