[Tlhingan-hol] emphasizing noun suffixes

[Lieven]

In the facebook group "learn klingon", somebody asked if he could flip 
the suffix order to say "definitely MY ship" because {Dujna'wIj} is 
ambiguous and may mean something else, like "my DEFINITE ship".

Someone else said "if you get a chance to ask Okrand, then do it". So I 
did.  :-)

Briefly, the answer to the question is by stressing the syllable. Here's 
the message:
http://www.qephom.de/e/message_from_maltz_140624.html
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Maltz said there's no noun suffix that works like the verb suffix {-qu'} 
to emphasize or highlight whatever immediately precedes it. That is, 
there are no rovers for nouns. The placement is fixed. He pointed out 
that {Dujmeyna'} means "definitely ships" or "undoubtedly ships." It 
doesn't necessarily mean "a number of ships and not just one" even 
though {-na'} follows {-mey}.

It turns out it's a little more complicated or subtle, however.

The word {jaghpu'na'} could mean "definitely enemies" (that is, there's 
no question that those people you're talking about are enemies and not 
friends or neutral parties or whatever), but, in the proper context, it 
could also mean "definitely (several or a lot of) enemies," focusing on 
the group or plurality.

Going back to {Duj}, the context might be:

    Speaker #1: Duj Dalegh'a'?

    Speaker #2: Dujmeyna' vIlegh.

"Do you see a ship/ships?" (In English, I have to indicate singular or 
plural; in Klingon, of course, it's ambiguous or unstated.)

"I see what is unquestionably a bunch of ships." ({-mey} makes the 
plurality explicit, but {-na'} emphasizes the plurality: There's no 
doubt that there's not just one ship out there!)

For the possessive suffixes, however, this doesn't work. {jaghna'lI'} 
means "definitely your enemy (and not your friend, etc.)." It doesn't 
specifically mean "definitely your enemy (and not mine)."

He said if you want to emphasize the possessor, just give it extra 
stress when saying the word: {DujlIj} (or DujlIj or DujlIj or DujlIj or 
DujLIJ or however you want to transcribe it -- I'm not sure whether 
italics and bold and all of that will show up for you).
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-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher
http://wiki.qepHom.de