[Tlhingan-hol] "I have kept my word of honor"

[David Trimboli]

On 7/10/2012 12:20 PM, Steven Boozer wrote:
>
> Voragh:
>>> I've just noticed a new idiom used in the {paq'batlh}:
>>> {lay' 'ej batlh pab} "keep one's word of honor":
>>>
>>>     jIlay'ta' 'ej batlh jIpabta' vaj choDanIS
>>>     I have kept my word of honor, And so should you,
>>>      (PB 150-151, 186-187)
>>>
>>>     qotarvaD lay'ta' 'ej batlh pab qeylIS
>>>     Kahless kept his word of honor to Kotar (PB 184-85)
>
> SuStel:
>> Is this really an idiom? {lay' 'ej batlh pab} "promise and follow the
>> rules honorably." The English is idiomatic, but I don't think the
>> Klingon is. It seems quite literal.
>
> A stock phrase then, if not an idiom. But if it's literal, to which
> rules is the poet referring? {jIlay'ta' 'ej batlh jIpabta'} "I have
> promised and I have followed the rules honorably" to my ear implies
> that the promise has been made honorably (and in the proper form for
> such things {batlh pab}), not that the promise was necessarily
> fulfilled.

It does seem ambiguous. "I promised and honorably followed the rules of 
making promises" or "I promised and honorably followed the rules of 
keeping promises."

> Or is that what {-ta'} "accomplished, done" implies?
>
>    This suffix is similar to {-pu'}, but it is used when an activity
>    was deliberately undertaken, the implication being that someone
>    set out to do something and in fact did it. English translations
>    seldom reveal the distinction.  [TKD 41]
>
> The question is which activity was "deliberately undertaken": making
> the promise or actually keeping the promise? And wouldn't the latter
> be ?{lay'chu'ta'}?

I don't think the completion suffix disambiguates in any way. {lay'} 
means "promise," not "fulfill a promise," and no combination of suffixes 
will turn it into "fulfill a promise." {lay'chu'ta'} means "promised 
completely or perfectly."

> I'm guessing that in {pab} "follow (rules)" the parenthesis is an
> example, i.e. "follow (rules, traditions, customary practice, etc.}.

Agreed.

> AFAIK our only other example of {lay'} "promise" is:
>
>    not lay'Ha' tlhIngan
>    No Klingon ever breaks his word. TKW

This is interesting. It's "undo a promise," not "go against a promise" 
or "fail to fulfill a promise." It says the promise exists and then is 
undone, not that something is done that is contrary to the promise, 
which is usually what is meant by the English "break his word."

-- 
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/