[Tlhingan-hol] Piraha

[Will Martin]

I just want to make it clear to the newcomers here that {-mo’}, in this example, is a verb suffix and it always is connected to the verb. It cannot float to the end of the dependent clause, as this punctuation suggests. If the example were “because perhaps soon Kruge will die honorably”, we would not say <<chaq tugh Hegh Qugh>>mo’. We’d say {chaq tugh Heghmo’ Qugh}.

The type 9 verb suffix gives what would otherwise be its own sentence a grammatical function in a larger sentence with a single main verb. In this case, there are three dependent clauses with one main verb. The main sentence is “They celebrate.” When do they celebrate? When Kahless stops that he speaks; when he stops speaking. Why do they celebrate? Because perhaps soon they may die honorably and/or because perhaps soon they may conquer (someone).

I see what you are trying to explain here, but I’m concerned that this style of punctuation may lead newcomers to expect that the Type 9 verb suffix somehow floats to the last word in the phrase, whether it’s a verb or not, and this is not the case.

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Nov 2, 2015, at 12:05 PM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 2 November 2015 at 17:04, qunnoQ HoD <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> {tugh batlh Heghmo’} "soon he dies with honor"
>> 
>> i'm sorry to lead this discussion of track,but {-mo'} as i just
>> saw,translates to <<due to,because of>>.
>> why is then the translation <<soon he dies with honor>> and not <<soon he
>> dies because of honor>> ?
> 
> The cutting and pasting in the thread has distorted the alignment of
> the translation here.
> 
> Putting things back into context, the sentence fragment you're reading
> comes from the following (where the fragment is marked with
> "((...))"):
> 
> {jatlh ‘e’ mevDI’ qeylIS, lop
> chaq ((tugh batlh Hegh))mo’
> ‘ej chaq tugh charghmo’}
> 
> "After Kahless's words, they celebrate,
> For ((they may soon die with honor))!
> For they may soon be victorious!"
> 
> The {-mo'} is not part of the meaning "they may soon die with honour",
> it's part of {lop... Heghmo'} "celebrate... for they may die" .
> 
>>> {reH batlh SuvtaHjaj chaH} "they always fight with honor"
>> 
>> {reH} always
>> {batlh} honor
>> {Suv} to fight
>> {-taH} continuous
>> {-jaj} may
>> {chaH} they
>> 
>> why <<they always fight with honor>> and not <<may they keep fighting with
>> honor>> ?
> 
> That's what it means. The original translation quoted above was:
> "Let endless battle and honor await them!"
> 
> One has to be careful when quoting the paq'batlh to quote a complete
> sentence or paragraph, and not just one line, since there is not a 1:1
> correspondence between the order of the lines in English and Klingon.
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Tlhingan-hol mailing list
> Tlhingan-hol at kli.org
> http://mail.kli.org/mailman/listinfo/tlhingan-hol

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol/attachments/20151102/f738712e/attachment.html>