[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Hoj

[SuStel]

On 3/4/2016 1:17 PM, qov at kli.org wrote:

> Certainly Klingon currently lacks the tools to express what English
> does with "Had it been so, then ..."  or "Were it thus, then ..." but
> there are English speakers who don't use that grammar and they get
> by, showing that context can do the job. At a session with Mac two
> qep'a'mey ago the lack of an irrealis was mentioned to Marc and he
> appreciated what was being asked and thought about it, but hasn't
> returned with any solution.

paq'batlh has an example, spoken by Molor:

    jIlay’DI’ reH batlh jIpabchugh
    Qapla’meywIj Hoch vIta’ta’ ‘e’ DaHar’a’
    quv vuv nuv pagh ghajbogh neH

    Did you think that my word of honor
    Would have carried me this far?
    Honor is for those with nothing to lose!

Literally, it's "when I promise, if I always follow the rules honorably, 
I have accomplished the entirety of my successes; do you believe that?"

Klingons can apparently speak in this kind of conditional perfect sense 
without any special grammar devoted to it, so long as the listener "gets 
it."

"Irrealis" isn't really the right word for it. Irrelealis refers to any 
verbal clause that expresses something other than what is known to be 
true. {bIje'be'chugh} is an irrealis; {qeylIS Daghomjaj} is an irrealis; 
{yIjaH} is an irrealis. What's special about the conditional perfect is 
that it's an irrealis that Klingon has no grammar for.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name