[tlhIngan Hol] Apollo mission sentence

[SuStel]

*loS... qIb HeHDaq, 'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh lenglu'meH He 
ghoSlu'bogh retlhDaq 'oHtaH.*/
It waits... on the edge of the galaxy, beside a passage to unknown 
regions of the universe/ (SkyBox 99)


On 5/1/2019 3:31 PM, Will Martin wrote:
> Actually, the interesting part is that he starts with a main verb, 
> then goes on to list locatives that apparently apply to the previously 
> stated verb, suggesting that this must be poetry, since it defies all 
> norms for Klingon grammar.

Oh come on! It's perfectly grammatical. Trim off the extraneous *loS:*

*qIb HeHDaq*/on the edge of the galaxy/

*'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh*/to unknown regions of the universe/

*lenglu'meH He ghoSlu'bogh retlhDaq*/beside a way one follows in order 
that one travels/

*'oHtaH*/it is/

This is a "to be" sentence with a long, nested locative and a shorter 
locative.

The first locative is *qIb HeHDaq.* This specifies the location of Deep 
Space 9.

The next locative is *'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh lenglu'meH He 
ghoSlu'bogh retlhDaq*/beside a passage to unknown regions of the universe./

Start with a noun:
*retlhDaq*/beside/ (simple locative)
Now look at a noun phrase: *He ghoSlu'bogh*/way which one follows
/Add a purpose clause to this phrase: *lenglu'meH He ghoSlu'bogh*/way 
which one follows in order to travel
/Now invent a destination: *'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh*/to unknown 
regions of the universe
/Put this destination on the traveling: *'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh 
lenglu'meH He ghoSlu'bogh*/way which one follows in order to travel to 
unknown regions of the universe
/This is a noun phrase. Now use this to modify the original noun:
*'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh lenglu'meH He ghoSlu'bogh retlhDaq*/beside 
the way which one follows in order to travel to unknown regions of the 
universe.
/

That's not poetry. That's just complicated.


> We’d be hard pressed to find another example where he does this. It 
> fits the English translation pretty well, but it’s not grammatical in 
> Klingon. Locatives don’t follow the verbs to which they apply.

He has not done that here.


> So it doesn’t look like a great precedence-setting example for a verb 
> in the middle of a noun-noun construction, unless we want to also 
> accept that it’s fine for us to put locatives at the end of a 
> sentence, now.

No one has suggested such a thing.


> Your second example carries a lot more weight. Clearly, that is a 
> noun-noun construction {romulusngan nejwI’} with the second noun being 
> described by {Sambogh ‘ej HoHbogh}, which is also interesting, because 
> it would be more typical of other canon to have said {romuluSngan 
> Sambogh nejwI’ HoHbogh je.}, if I’m remembering the song lyrics 
> correctly. Probably not.

It would be more typical of other canon to have said *romuluSngan 
Sambogh nejwI' 'ej HoHbogh.* There is just one time where a *je* was 
used for something like this, and that WAS poetry. This is not. Klingon 
canon has examples of both the X Vbogh 'ej Wbogh Y and X vbogh Y 'ej 
Wbogh forms, but only the one song with the Wbogh, Ybogh je X form.


-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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