[Tlhingan-hol] KLBC: "Which" and uses of question words

[De'vID]

'eD:
> I'm glad I was reading this thread. I was not aware that nuq and 'Iv can be
> used as verbs the way pronouns can, as SuStel pointed out.

They can do so only under limited conditions:
<<Question words (in this case, nuq "what?") function the same way
pronouns do in questions with "to be" in the English translations.>>
(Marc Okrand, MSN post, Dec. 12, 1996)

Note that they can't replace arbitrary verbs, only pronouns acting as
verbs, or in other words, verbs which would normally be translated
with "to be" in English.

'eD:
> I think I
> recently wrote to this list something like <Dochvam 'oH nuq'e'?>, which I
> suppose would be okay, but <Dochvam nuq?> is so much simpler.

{Dochvam nuq?} is in fact used in Conversational Klingon.

'eD:
> Could you, then, ask a question like <puq nuqtaH yaS?>
> I'm just inserting the question word where the verb goes. Literally, it comes out as "The officer is what-ing the child?"

{nuq} can't replace {vang}, only pronouns acting as verbs like {'oH}
or {ghaH} or {SoH}.

I suppose one might ask {puq nuqtaH yaS'e'?}, and the expected answer
would be {puq ghaHtaH yaS'e'} or {puq SoHtaH yaS'e'} or something
weird like that. I can't imagine that such sentences can make sense
outside of an Alice in Wonderland situation.

-- 
De'vID