[tlhIngan Hol] When did you buy the phone which you now use ?

[Steven Boozer]

Niqolay Q is right, but without any context I would have to think about it for a moment.  In writing, punctuation is helpful:

  DaH ghogh HablI' Dalo'bogh, ghorgh Daje' ?
  The phone you’re using now, when did you buy it?

Since you can’t see punctuation in speech, using {-‘e’} (topic) is helpful, as well as a slight pause after the first clause (which is what a comma represents):

  DaH ghogh HablI'’e’ Dalo'bogh [pause] ghorgh Daje' ?
  As for the phone you’re using now, when did you buy it?
  That phone you’re using now, when did you buy it?

Before qunnoq asks…  I’m using “that” colloquially as a topic marker in English – not necessarily to distinguish “that phone” (over there) from “this phone’ (in my hand).

--Voragh

From: tlhIngan-Hol [mailto:tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org] On Behalf Of nIqolay Q


On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 9:18 AM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com<mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>> wrote:
I was wondering whether we can pack into a single klingon sentence, the question:

"When did you buy the phone, which you now use ?"

If we translated it exactly, then perhaps we would have:

{ghorgh DaH ghogh HablI' Dalo'bogh Daje' ?}

But the existence, side-by-side of {ghorgh} and {DaH}, results in an awkward sentence

It doesn't seem that awkward to me. Since it doesn't make sense for the {DaH} to go with {Daje'}, it must be going with the relative clause.

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