[Tlhingan-hol] Noun sequences

[Robyn Stewart]

I didn’t refresh my mail in between reading and answering, but I like how succinct that question is.  

Succinct answer—if you don’t know, you don’t know.

Long answer:
Out loud, I think they’d sound a little different. With no context, {*Qov* HoD vIlegh} with emphasis on Qov, would be Captain Qov. {Qov *HoD* vIlegh} with the emphasis on HoD would suggest that it was my captain. But that could be reversed if the conversation involved some doubt about my rank, or about whose captain was sighted.  But that would involve context, so you’d know.  If someone gets confused, you have to explain with {HoD ghaH Qov’e’, HoD ghajbe’} or {HoD ghaHbe’ Qov’e’. HoDDaj’e’ vIqel.}

I have a hat that I call (in English) “my captain’s hat.”  Do you think I got it from a captain who mentored me or that it’s part of a uniform I wear as a captain?  Neither is true.  It’s a ridiculous rainbow striped sunhat that my best friend gave me to celebrate my being hired as a captain.  If you don’t know, you don’t know.

 

- Qov

 

From: Anthony Appleyard [mailto:a.appleyard at btinternet.com] 
Sent: October 11, 2015 8:45
To: lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com; tlhingan-hol at kli.org
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Noun sequences

 

But please, how to distinguish e.g. "Captain Qov" from "Qov's captain"?

----Original message----
>From : lojmitti7wi7nuv at gmail.com
Date : 11/10/2015 - 16:30 (GMTST)
To : tlhingan-hol at kli.org
Subject : Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Noun sequences

I don't think that adding a title to a name is necessarily considered to be apposition. It's one thing to say "The pilot, Qov, is very experienced." That's apposition. In English, it gets a comma. But, "Mr. Martin would like a window seat" doesn't have a comma between the title, Mr., and the name, Martin.

 

In Klingon, a title always follows the name of the person it is being applied to, except for HoD Qanqor, who established that name for himself before Okrand revealed that the title should follow the name. He'd had it for enough years that he decided to simply ignore convention for his name alone. Everyone else follows their name with their title, and Qanqor follows this convention for all names except his own.
....

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