[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: chep

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Fri Jul 7 08:16:32 PDT 2017


On 7/7/2017 10:52 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
> The verb {chep} means "to be prosperous, to prosper", and so we have
> the {yIchep} for "prosper !" (imperative).
>
> But if the only definition given to {chep} was "to be prosperous",
> then we couldn't have the {yIchep} and so we would have
> {yIchep'eghmoH}, right ?

Yes, *yIchep* violates KGT's rule that imperative verbs expressing 
states or qualities just include *-'egh* and *-moH.* The rule has been 
violated elsewhere too, mostly but not always before KGT was published.


> ..and with regards to the {Dab} on the paq'batlh example.
>
> A little bird told me, that according to the KLI mailing list
> 1999.07.19, "In Klingon, when one lives at a place, he or she is
> thought of as occupying or inhabiting it. That is, he or she is not
> seen as doing something at a location, but rather as doing something
> to it"
>
> So in this context, the {'op ben pa' Dab ngan} should be written
> instead {'op ben pa' luDab ngan} for "some years ago inhabitants
> resided the there".
>
> The only interpretation of the canon sentence which I could find,
> in-keeping with the above list's comment, is "some years ago an
> inhabitant resided the there". But I don't think this is the intended
> meaning; if only one resides somewhere, then this somewhere hardly
> qualifies as being alive and prosperous.

I can think of three possibilities:

 1. It was supposed to be *luDab,* and the *lu-* was erroneously dropped.
 2. The subject is singular: /some years ago an inhabitant inhabited
    there./ This is not an unreasonable way to render literally the
    figurative /[the land] was alive,/ though I would have expected
    plural inhabitants.
 3. It is using *pa'* as a non-subject, non-object noun placed before
    the OVS structure, and *Dab* here has no object: /some years ago,
    thereabouts, inhabitants inhabited (in general)./ This is not
    actually ungrammatical, just a bit odd.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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