[Tlhingan-hol] "A Klingon Christmas Carol" trailer

[lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com]

It’s a stretch to say that direct and indirect objects are interchangeable and that all verbs can be handled like this. I suspect that each verb has a more specific, somewhat idiomatic range of acceptable use and our definitions don’t always tell us very clearly what this range is.

It’s a challenge to make distinct boundaries between well spoken Klingon and slop that passes for it because someone can figure out what you meant.

We have to make arbitrary choices, especially because our definitions aren’t all that clear and precise. We only have one native speaker, and he doesn’t talk to us much.

lojmIt tI’wI’ nuv ‘utlh
Retired Door Repair Guy

> On Nov 25, 2014, at 3:34 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 
> On 11/25/2014 3:10 PM, lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com wrote:
> 
>> Okrand has clearly explained to us that the direct object of {jatlh}
>> is a speech or a story or a language, but the direct object of {ja’}
>> is another person.
> 
> When did he clearly explain to us the correct object of {ja'}? I know he's told us the correct object(s) of {jatlh}.
> 
> I don't think Klingon is quite so rigid about the difference between direct and indirect objects. It may be that the prefix trick works because of this lack of distinction. {maHvaD lut luja'}, {lut nuja'} (both apparently "they told us a story"), and {nuja'} ("they told us") may work like this because Klingon doesn't particularly care whether the object you place before the verb is direct or indirect.
> 
> To my knowledge we have no canonical example of an explicit noun or pronoun in the object position for {ja'}. We have prefixes only, but those are prefix-tricky.
> 
> -- 
> SuStel
> http://www.trimboli.name/
> 
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