[tlhIngan Hol] Does rIntaH require a sentient being ?

[Will Martin]

Unless there’s something grammatical here that I’m missing, you are saying two sentences:

[He, She, It, They] change[s] me. The oath’s words are finished.

There are two uses of {rIn} that mark it as different from normal Klingon verbs used in normal Klingon grammar:

{rIn} is used like the military uses the word “over” to mark the end of a radio transmission, so that each side knows when it’s okay to push the “talk” button.

{rIntaH} also can follow a sentence to indicate that something is completely done.

Both of these instances involve the verb {rIn} without its own subject, object, or prefix indicating subject or object.

{rIn} , pronounced “reen” was used to mark the end of communication via radio in one of the movies.

{rIntaH} was used in ST3 in the line {qa’vam De’ vIje’ rIntaH} spoken by valQIS. I think this is the only time in canon that it has been used, and the whole reason it was used here is because in the scene, the actress was speaking English when the scene was shot, and Okrand had to come up with a Klingon line that would match her lip movements when the Klingon was dubbed in, and without {rIntaH}, she would have finished dubbing in her Klingon equivalent line and her lips would still be moving. Qugh is speaking Klingon, because his side of the scene was shot later, after hiring Okrand. ValQIS’s side of the conversation was shot before Okrand was hired. She dubbed her lines in later. All of her lines were shot with her saying exactly what the subtitles say she’s saying and dubbed into Klingon later.

Okrand worked hard to come up with a reason for her saying this, so he invented a little extra grammar, for which, so far as I know, he’s never used again. I wouldn’t invest a lot into seeing how far you can extend this grammar element. It just gets weird.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On Mar 8, 2019, at 12:59 PM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Assume qeylIS writes an oath, which when heard, turns a coward to a warrior.
> 
> And this effect of the oath cannot be undone. It is a magical oath of sorts.
> 
> Could the former coward say:
> 
> muchoH rIntaH 'ip mu'mey
> the words of the oath changed me
> 
> Or is the rIntaH to be used, only when the one who {rIntaH}s is
> someone sentient ?
> 
> ~ changan qIj
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