[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: matlhHa'

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Mon Sep 19 08:55:59 PDT 2016


On 9/19/2016 11:38 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
> It always pisses me off, to read canon sentences which make no sense ;
>
>> matlhHa'lu'chugh vaj Doghlu' 'e' yaymeH molor
> the way I understand the use of the suffix {-lu'}, and the way we have
> discussed it here so many months, it is used to mean that "someone
> does something to someone" ; not that "someone does something period".
> For the latter purpose we use {vay'}; not {-lu'}.

I don't happen to have /paq'batlh/ handy, so I can't tell you what the 
actual English version says, and I don't know what *yaymeH* means.

But I can tell you that *-lu'* does not mean "someone does something to 
someone." It means "someone or something unspecified or abstract does 
something." Maybe it's done to something, maybe not.

    *matlhHa'lu'chugh
    */if someone unspecified is disloyal
    /

    *Doghlu'
    */someone unspecified is foolish/

> If I want to say "someone confuses me" I will say {vImISmoHlu'}, and
> if I want to say "someone is confused" I will write {mIS vay'}. I
> can't write {mISlu'} meaning that "someone is confused".

Sure you can. The difference is that *vay'* indicates a definite 
"someone," while *-lu'* might be used when that someone is more abstract 
(though it doesn't necessarily mean that).

> At the aforementioned jay' sentence we obviously have a meaning which
> goes something like "if someone is disloyal then someone is
> foolish..", and in order to describe this intended meaning we see the
> words {matlhHa'lu'chugh} and {Doghlu'} respectively.
>
> Are we serious ?

*HIja'*

>> qorDu' SaHlu'chugh 'ej matlhlu'chugh vaj wa' tlhIngan ghob potlhqu'
> The {qorDu' SaHlu'chugh} is correct. But when it comes to the
> {matlhlu'chugh} then again things make no sense. If the
> {matlhlu'chugh} is used on its own in order to say "if someone is
> loyal", then it is wrong. And if the {matlhlu'chugh} refers to the
> {qorDu'}, then again we have the meaning "if someone cares for his
> family, and if someone is loyal his family.."

    *qorDu' SaHlu'chugh 'ej matlhlu'chugh*
    /if one cares about family and if one is loyal/

> And as if all these weren't enough, when we read past the {vaj} the
> sentence takes the meaning "then one (or one's) very important klingon
> virtue" and then period. ?!?!?!

The SkyBox cards have the most errors of all of Okrand's Klingon. He did 
them pretty early on. For your own sanity, just accept this.

> And I will ask again.. Are we serious ? These are the kind of canon
> sentences which are supposed to help people understand proper klingon
> ?

The SkyBox cards never had the goal of helping people understand proper 
Klingon. They were made for /Star Trek/ fans.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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