[tlhIngan Hol] Can I place {-mey} on a number ?

Rhona Fenwick qeslagh at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 10 02:47:14 PDT 2019


ghItlhpu' mayqel, jatlhpu':
> Can I say {vatlhmey jagh} for "hundreds of enemies" ?

The closest relevant canon evidence I can think of is from the paq'batlh:

SaD law' San chenmoH qeylIS
Kahless decided the fate of thousands (paq'raD 23.44)

However, this lends weight rather to SuStel's guess that without a specific number, the element would tend more to be treated more as a noun rather than a number in the sense we're used to in Klingon; given the English parallel text, the sense of SaD law' San appears to be not so much "thousands of fates" as "the fates of thousands [of people]". Similarly, I'd interpret vatlhmey jagh only as "the enemy of hundreds".

So based upon that evidence, I think you'd have to invert the order of the phrase for "hundreds of enemies", and I'd lean towards keeping law', as well (since when one says "hundreds of X" or "thousands of X" in English, it also necessarily implies the quantity is perceived as large beyond the need for more accurate counting): so, jagh vatlh law' San chenmoH qeylIS Kahless decided the fate of (many) hundreds of enemies, or nuHIvchoHpu' jagh vatlh law' (many) hundreds of enemies began to attack us.

QeS 'utlh
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