[Tlhingan-hol] Qun qa'

[Felix Malmenbeck]

> I vaguely recall that Okrand liked this disambiguating use of {-'e'}

> in a relative clause when someone suggested it to him


Aye, Marc has said that is is "clever, right or wrong."


Source: http://klingonska.org/canon/1998-12-holqed-07-4.txt


LS: Somebody was asking about if you have two nouns that both have
    {-'e'} on them, and they're conjoined with {je}, do you put the {-'e'} on
    the {je} or on the nouns?

MO: Right. Can you topicalize a conjunction? I don't know... nah...
    Though actually for me, one of the things that pleases me about all
    this stuff is not so much when people talk about the details of the
    language, although that's fine, is when they talk about language at
    all. So this guy came up with this idea of putting {-'e'} at the end,
    that's a very clever idea, right or wrong.


________________________________
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer at uchicago.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 18:19
To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Qun qa'

I vaguely recall that Okrand liked this disambiguating use of {-'e'} in a relative clause when someone suggested it to him, but I only found 4 examples of Okrand using it:

butlh ghajbogh nuv'e' yIHo'
Admire the person with dirt under his fingernails. TKW

yIntaHvIS qeylIS'e' lIjlaHbe'bogh vay' batlh 'etlhvam
chenmoHlu'pu'
this sword of honor descends from the time of Kahless
the Unforgettable. S8

qorDu'Daj tuq 'oS Ha'quj'e' tuQbogh wo'rIv
The sash that Worf wears is a symbol of his family's house. S20

SaqSub'e' muSHa'bogh pawmeH leng qeylIS HuDmey Sal ghIq ghIr
And Kahless traveled to his beloved Saq'sub, over the mountains PB

nuH'e' qengbogh mangghomvam luDel 'e' ra' molor, lujang
maS'e' loQ So'be'bogh QIb lurur
Molor asks them what weapons this army carries, they reply,
shaped as the crescent moon. PB

It's not grammatically required, but it is good Klingon style - particularly in longer sentences.

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons


From: Will Martin [mailto:lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 10:45 AM

On this mailing list, it's also been used in relative clauses to make clear which noun is the noun that participates in both the relative clause and the main clause, as in {QIpqu' Qanqor tIchbogh nuv'e'.} "The person who insults Krankor is very stupid." Without the {-'e'}, you could mistakenly think that meant "Krankor, who is insulted by the person, is stupid," which would be an unwise statement to make in the company of Krankor's friends.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure if we've ever seen a canon example of Okrand using {-'e'} in this way. I'd sorely miss it if it were ever declared a bad use of {-'e'}, but I don't think Okrand himself has ever made a position clear on this.

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