[tlhIngan Hol] “What color is it?”

[Daniel Dadap]

On Mar 10, 2019, at 21:32, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:

>> My first instinct on how to ask that question was “chay' nguv?” However, after I asked it that way, I immediately thought to myself that maybe that is asking about the means by which the car is colored (e.g. laSvarghDaq lunguvmoHpu' nguvmoHmeH qoqmey”) rather than its current state of coloration.
> It can't mean that; you'd have to ask chay' nguvmoHlu'pu' how has one tinted it? to get that.
> 
> 
> 

Ah, cool. In English “how” can both ask a question of quality and a question of process (my own made up terminology; I’m sure there are better words I don’t know, or did know and have forgotten), and I wasn’t sure if {chay'} could also do both in Klingon. The examples for {chay'} in TKD 6.4 did not include any questions of quality.

It makes sense that {chay'} with a verb of quality would form a question of quality, but form a question of process when {-moH} is added. At least that’s what I think your example with {chay' nguv} vs. {chay' nguvmoHlu'pu'} generalizes out to.

>> So I reasked as “Doq'a'? SuD'a'? chIS'a'? qIj'a'?”
> That's really awful.
> 

Agreed.

> KGT tells us:
> 

D’oh; once again I failed to open a perfectly good book I have sitting on my shelf before asking the list. Apologies for the noise.
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