[Tlhingan-hol] Dante qul'a'

[Steven Boozer]

nIqolay:
>>> I also briefly thought of ngIq'a' as "important one, great one",
>>> since the original post where ngIq got mentioned described it by
>>> saying "I surmise that {ngIq} by itself could mean 'the one and
>>> only'," but it seems like the literal meaning of ngIq is still not
>>> 100% certain.
 
Voragh:
>> You're right.  {ngIq} seems to be an adverbial meaning something like
>> "one by one, one at a time, apiece, singly, each one, etc."  It's used
>> in the {'u'} libretto, paq'batlh and Monopoly:

nIqolay:
> Some of the postings I'd read were interpreting it as a quantity noun like
> Hoch et al., meaning "each, taken one at a time".

If you look at the examples you'll see that {ngIq} is always first word in the clause, i.e. in the adverbial position:

  ngIq nuv luHoH
  they killed the warriors one by one. ('U'-OPERA)

  ngIq tonSaw' lo' 'ej... 
  in one single move, he... ('U'-OPERA)

  ngIq tonSaw' lo' 'ej tIqDu' lel
  ngIq tonSaw' lo' 'ej quvqa' 
  ngIq tonSaw' lo' 'ej rIn may' 
  In one single move, he removed the hearts,
  In one single move, he restored his honor,
  In one single move, the battle was done.  PB

  ngIq tonSaw' lo' SaD law' San chenmoH qeylIS wej
   boghbogh nuvpu' San chenmoH
  In one single move, Kahless decided the fate of
   thousands, and those to come.  PB

  ngIq raQ - 150 QaS
  outposts cost 150 each MKE

  ngIq raQ - 200 QaS, mon - 200 QaS loS raQmey je
  Outposts cost 200 each; capitals, 200 each plus 4 outposts. MKE

  ngIq raQvaD cha'maH vagh QaS yInob
  For each outpost pay 25 forces. MKE

  ngIq gholvaD vaghmaH QaS yInob
  Pay each player 50 forces. MKE

  ngIq gholvo' wa'maH QaS yItlhap
  Collect 10 forces from every player. MKE

OTOH, {ngIq} precedes a noun in every case, so it could be some sort of quantity noun too -- although {Hoch NOUN} already means "each NOUN".  The difference seems to be adverbial, i.e. "taken one at a time, in sequence, etc."


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons