[Tlhingan-hol] KLBC: "shut up or I'll hit you"

[De'vID]

lojmIt tI'wI' nuv:
> I’m pretty sure that {bIjeghbe’chugh vaj bIHegh} is in TKD, while
> {bIje’be’chugh vaj bIHegh} is in Conversational Klingon (an audio tape and
> CD).

In Star Trek Into Darkness, the Klingon ship broadcasts the message
?{bISaqQo'chugh vaj bIHegh} or something like that while chasing
Mudd's ship. It's hard to make out the exact sentence, because it's in
the background in a noisy scene, but the sentence structure is
definitely similar to the already known examples.

lojmIt tI'wI' nuv:
> Again, you do have the option of using {pagh}. There’s nothing wrong with
> {bIjegh pagh bIHegh} (so long as you are willing to make sure that the
> person you are talking to doesn’t die even after surrendering), but you
> can’t link an imperative with a statement and get the meaning that you are
> intending.

Using "or" to express two mutually exclusive alternatives being
presented to the listener is an English idiom that doesn't necessarily
carry into other languages. (Never mind Klingon; it doesn't even work
in some Earth languages.)

{bIjegh pagh bIHegh} is a conjunction of two statements: "You are
surrendering", "you are dying", one (and only one) of those two
statements is true. If the listener neither surrenders nor dies, then
the speaker is just wrong. It's a statement that invites the response:
{jIjeghbe' 'ej jIHeghbe', qoH!}

-- 
De'vID