[Tlhingan-hol] nuq bop bom: 'ay' cha'vatlh wa'maH Hut: Hurgh wa' Dop - chIS latlh

[Robyn Stewart]

At 22:12 '?????' 7/9/2012, ghunchu'wI' 'utlh wrote:
>On Jul 9, 2012, at 8:12 PM, Robyn Stewart <robyn at flyingstart.ca> wrote:
> >> "Ha', reghovmeH Ha'qujrajDaq veDDIrvam 'ay' tItuQ."
> >>
> >> Two things:
> >>
> >> 1) I know plural suffixes are not required, but it took me three times
> >> through this to understand that the grammar was correctly describing
> >> multiple bits of fur. And it wasn't until the fourth time that I fully
> >> recognized that it similarly implied multiple sashes. (The uncommon
> >> verb prefix {re-} might have distracted me a little.)
> >
> > Interesting. I can't see tI-  and not know that it refers to 
> multiples, and I would have a hard time thinking that a personal 
> item like a Ha'quj with a -raj suffix referred to a shared item. 
> It's like in English if you say "you guys go put wool representing 
> sheep on your pants," I'm going to assume that each person has 
> pants and that there's at least one sheep per pair of pants. I'm 
> going to need a special explanation if you want me to understand 
> that there is one, jointly-owned pair of pants, or that somehow one 
> sheep is worn over multiple pairs of pants.
>
>I've tried to come at it fresh as if I didn't already know exactly
>what it said. That's not easy. My best guess at what caused me trouble
>is simple cognitive overload. I got to the {tI-} at the next-to-last
>syllable and it didn't match what I had already stacked up from the
>rest of the sentence. After the {Ha'} it was only four words, but two
>of them have polysyllabic nouns and one of them has an uncommon verb
>prefix. The plural-ness indicated by the prefix immediately overrode
>my default expectation of singular-ness, and I understood the meaning
>without problem. It was just going back over it to convince myself
>that it actually said what I understood that took me a couple more
>tries to sort out all the implicit details.

Do you think it would be improved by adding more syllables to the 
nouns, in the form of explicit plurals?


> >> 2) It's speech from a character, not a textbook, so I should't
> >> complain too hard about its less than perfect clarity.
> >
> > Usually when you don't get something right away I think it should 
> be changed, but I'm happy with this one.
>
>I actually "got it" right away (ignoring the brief moment of
>indecision just as I read the {tI-} prefix). I just took a while to
>make sure that "it" was both what was intended *and* actually  what
>was written. This is a high-grade-level sentence.

That doesn't really describe vajar. He doesn't like reading much. But 
given the number of mistakes I make, it's fair that you stopped to 
ask, "what did she screw up this time?" before figuring it out.


> >> qar'a' lunobpu'_bogh_?
> >
> > HIja', 'ej DImISmoHpu'chugh Qaghvetlh'e', jItlhIj.
>
>nuqjatlh? tlhIH'e' 'Iv?

Um ...DumISmoHpu'chugh? : the u key is next to the i key. My best 
guess is that while the right hand didn't know which key was which, 
the left hand knew damned well that the right hand was hitting an i, 
and that in Klingon that means it should hit the shift key, but it 
didn't communicate that back to the brain, which had actually 
commanded the right hand to type a u.  Or I couldn't decide whether 
the instrument of your possible confusion was singular or plural and 
managed to combine nI- and Du- into DI-- Or I'm going insane.

> >> > may' law' SIQpu' vajar 'ej ngoDvam Sov: qaSpa' may' ghol 
> Dajonchugh 'ej qama'vetlhvaD QIn Danobchugh, qama' DatlhabmoHDI' 
> SIbI' QIn Hev Hoch. rut ghol ghIjmeH qama'vaD HIvwI' mI' ngeb ja' 
> vajar. luHarbe' ra'wI'pu' 'ach Harmo' QaS, Qap to'. cha' qama' nov 
> jonpu'DI', chaHvaD jeghmeH mIw Del vajar, ghIq wa' qama'vaD 
> jeghbe'wI' San 'agh, bejtaHvIS latlh[271].
> >>
> >> (*wewghew* lut vIparHa'qu'bogh vIqawtaH: <lupwI' mIr weH>. cha'
> >> qama'pu'vetlh cha' lut bertlham.)
> >
> > *wewghew* vIbejpu' 'ej lutvetlh vIqaw 'ach rurbogh ghu' vIqawchu'be'.
>
>Hergh nIHHa'ta' Duj beq 'ej jaghpu' jonpu'. jaghla'vaD QIn jatlh HoD.
>QIn lajQo' jaghla' 'ej HoD buQ. jaghla' pup HoD 'ej QuQ tlhop SuSDaq
>yuv. jaghla' Sopchu' QuQ chuS.
>
>ghIq jagh cha'DIchvaD QIn jatlhchoH HoD. taghta'DI' HoD, SIbI' QIn
>Qoypu'bogh lajchu' jagh jIj.

toH, vaj rur.