[Tlhingan-hol] vagh jaj, vagh 'uy' DarSeq je

[Brent Kesler]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 8:18 AM, Gaerfindel <gaerfindel at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> P.S.  I know the comparative it wonky, but I couldn't think of a better
> way to express the need to fmore money that would accomplish more.  Any
> suggestions are most welcome!
>


I was wondering about comparatives just last night.  Here's my general
thinking. It's easy when the comparison is a straightforward "This noun is
more adjective than that noun." For example:

   1. batlh potlh law' yIn potlh puS [TKW]
       Honor is more important than life.


It gets a little more complicated when you want to compare ideas rather
than just nouns.

   2. QamvIS Hegh qaq law', torvIS yIn qaq puS [TKW]
       Better to die on our feet than live on our knees.

We can dissect this all day, I'm sure. We could see {QamvIS Hegh} and
{torvIS yIn} as noun phrases, that way they fit the standard [A Q law', B Q
puS] formula. So far so good.

However, there is a certain kind of comparative that comes naturally to me
in English that I struggle with in Klingon: "This noun verbs a more
adjective something than that noun verbs." Specifically, I've been trying
to write something like "Riders on horseback can dominate a larger
territory than an army on foot." I came up with this:

   3. ? yer'e' lughatlhlaH Sargh lIghwI'pu' tIn law', (yer'e') ghatlhlaH
yItnISbogh mangghom tIn puS.


Here's my thinking. Look back at sentence 2. We could see {QamvIS Hegh} and
{torvIS yIn} as sentences, while {qaq law'} and {qaq puS} are "comparative
commentaries" on those sentences. I expect a lot of people here will find
that controversial.

So let's try a more conventional approach:

   4. ? yer'e' lughatlhlaHbogh Sargh lIghwI'pu' tIn law', (yer'e')
ghatlhlaHbogh mangghom tIn puS.


This is mostly straightforward. I've recast "This noun verbs a more
adjective something than that noun verbs" into "The something which this
noun verbs is more adjective than the something which that noun verbs."
I've used {-bogh} to turn my sentences into noun phrases which fit into the
standard formula.

But I don't like this strategy. I've always found verbs that have both
{-bogh} and an object to be awkward, so I avoid them. Also, notice that in
sentence 4 I deleted a word that I used in sentence 3.

   3a. yer'e' ghatlhlaH yItnISbogh mangghom
         An army which must walk dominates a territory.

   4a. yer'e' ghatlhlaHbogh mangghom
         The territory which an army dominates.

   4b. ? yer'e' ghatlhlaHbogh yItnISbogh mangghom
         The territory that is dominated by an army which must walk.


That {yItnISbogh} is a key part of the idea I'm trying to communicate. it's
doubtful that riders on horseback can control a larger territory than any
army in general; it's important to specify that the army is *on foot*. I'm
already trying to avoid {-bogh} and now I'm using it twice! And I'm not
even sure it's grammatical. So I prefer sentence 3 over sentence 4.

At this point, I'm thinking a comparative is not the best strategy for my
sentence. Perhaps I should try something like this:

   5. yer tIn ghatlhlaH yItnISbogh mangghom, 'ach yer tInqu' lughatlhlaH
Sargh lIghwI'pu'.


But do I really mean to say that an army on foot can control a large
territory? Not really, just that the riders on horseback can control a
larger one.

  6. yer mach ghatlhlaH yItnISbogh mangghom, 'ach yer tIn lughatlhlaH Sargh
lIghwI'pu'.


But do I really mean to imply that an army on foot can only control a small
territory? Not really, only that it will be smaller than the territory that
riders on horseback can control.

Sentences 5 and 6 aren't as precise as I would like them to be, but they're
a lot less awkward than my attempted comparatives.

But there's another sort of comparative that's easier to state in English
than in Klingon: "This noun verbs more adverbly than that noun."

   7. nom puv DujwIj
       My ship flies quickly.


But how to say, "My ship flies faster than your ship"? There are no verbs
of quality meaning "be fast" or "be slow" (at least, I can't find any). But
there are adverbs {nom} and {QIt}.

   8. nom puv DujwIj, 'ej QIt puv DujlIj.
       My ship flies quickly, and your ship flies slowly.

But do I really mean to say your ship is slow? [sigh] Not really.


bI'reng
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