[tlhIngan Hol] Placement of the qatlh

[SuStel]

>> On Feb 18, 2019, at 09:15, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> When it comes to klingon, which of the following is the correct choice ?
>>
>> {qatlh choQaHmeH vIghro'lIj vIje'nIS ?}
>> {choQaHmeH qatlh vIghro'lIj vIje'nIS ?}

On 2/18/2019 9:30 AM, Jeffrey Clark wrote:
> Interesting question. Both of those Klingon sentences make sense to me. I think that {qatlh} should go at the head of the whole sentence as usual, since the -meH clause is just a clause rather than a stand-alone sentence itself; and qatlh in the middle just looks… odd… to me intuitively.

Except I would expect the *qatlh* to go at the beginning of the /clause/ 
of which it is a part, not the sentence as a whole. I see subordinate 
and purpose clauses as less closely connected to the main clause, and 
not actually a part of it — they're different clauses.

Imagine you instead asked, /Why do I need to feed your cat if I help you?/

    *qaQaHchugh, qatlh vIghro'lIj vIje'nIS?
    qatlh vIghro'lIj vIje'nIS, qaQaHchugh?*

I think mayqel's comprehension problem comes from the fact that he uses 
parenthetical phrases /a lot,/ and he's trying to do it here.

    *qatlh — qaQaHmeH — vIghro'lIj vIje'nIS?*

As a bit of extemporaneous explanation this would be just fine, but do 
too much of that and your high school teachers will start marking you 
off for poor style.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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