[tlhIngan Hol] tlhIngan maH

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Tue Jun 18 13:03:24 PDT 2019


I found three more examples in the paq'batlh:

tlhIngan SoH tlhIngan maH
For you are Klingon, we are Klingon. (PB)

reH tlhIngan tlhIH 'e' yIqaw
  pewuv'egh
Remember forever that you are Klingons,
  You need no one but yourselves!  (PB)

wuv'eghlaH
  boQ lupoQbe'
  tlhIngan chaH
[translation unavailable]  (PB)

... all with {tlhIngan} and AFAIK only {tlhIngan}.  As kechpaja mentioned, {tlhIngan maH/tlhIH/chaH} may well be a frozen expression turned into a slogan/battle cry.

--
Voragh

-----Original Message-----
From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org> On Behalf Of Steven Boozer
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2019 8:26 AM
To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org
Subject: Re: [tlhIngan Hol] tlhIngan maH

I've always been of Luciano's opinion.  Note that an unmarked plural predicate with {maH} is also seen in:

  yaS maH
  We are officers.  (TKD)

On the other hand ...

  wo' tay' tlhInganpu' maH! 
  We are U.K. Klingons!  (RT)

-----Original Message-----
From: Luciano Montanaro
> I learned that plural ending is optional in Klingon... So I would 
> expect it would be used basically for emphasis or at least 
> disambiguation, in common usage.  And {tlhIngan maH} is not ambiguous, as {maH} clearly indicates that the subject is plural.
>
> On the other hand, I noticed the Duolingo course, especially, always uses plural suffixes.

mayqel wrote:
>> I always understood tlhIngan maH, as "we are Klingon" i.e. members of 
>> the Klingon species, instead of "we are Klingons", as in "Klingon individuals".
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