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

[nIqolay Q]

>
> 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.

I think the general consensus on this phrase is that it's an idiomatic
usage and it's perhaps best not to generalize any rules from it.

> 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:

> 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.

Try recasting the sentence entirely. I'd try something like:

yer tIn ghatlhmeH Sargh lIghwI'pu' qaq law' yItbogh mangghom qaq puS.

Meaning "For dominating large territory, riders on horseback are
preferable to an army on foot."

Or, in more general words: "For verbing adjective nouns, this noun is
preferable to that noun".

> 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}.

Recently, MO said something along the lines that to express that a
thing moves fast or slow, you use a relative phrase: "the fast ship"
would be something like {nom lengbogh Duj} "the ship that travels
fast", which also demonstrates you can use adverbials in relative
clauses, which is handy.

>
>    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.

I imagine that in this usage, where it's contrasted with {nom}, a
listener would probably be able to interpret {QIt} in a more
contextual relative sense -- i.e. slow compared to the thing described
as {nom puv} -- rather than simply interpreting it to mean being slow
relative to all ships. Klingons can probably interpret things based on
context, and comparatives that don't use law'-puS probably rely on
context quite a bit.

That said, if it's necessary to not use QIt in describing DujlIj, you
could just fall back on:
nom puvmeH DujwIj qaq law' DujlIj qaq puS.