[tlhIngan Hol] to be sentences with {-bogh} and the {-'e'}

[Will Martin]

It marks the “head noun” of the relative clause. This marking is always optional, but it helps disambiguate relative clauses that have both a subject and an object.

The head noun is the noun in the relative clause that also functions grammatically (usually as subject or object) in the main clause.

In other words, your example uses {vIghro’} in two clauses:

Qun ‘oHbe’bogh vIghro’

and

vIghro’ wIghajnISbe’.

It’s the same {vIghro’}.

If the relative clause has an explicit subject noun and no object noun, you don’t need to mark anything.

If the relative clause has an explicit object noun and no subject noun, you don’t need to mark anything.

If context makes it obvious whether the explicit subject noun or object noun in the relative clause is also acting as a noun in the main clause, you don’t need to mark anything.

But if you want to be clear which noun in a relative clause that has both a subject noun and an object noun is also acting in a grammatical role in the outer main clause, mark it with {-‘e’}.

There has been interest in using nouns that have some other grammatical role in the contained relative clause or in the outer main clause, but that typically requires marking it with some other Type 5 noun suffix, and things get complicated. It’s usually better to just split things out into multiple sentences if you want something other than a head noun acting as either subject or object of the relative clause and as subject or object of the main clause.

Relative clauses are “light” grammatical tools, ill suited for heavy grammatical work. If you want to get fancy with relative clauses, you probably don’t really want to speak Klingon. You just want to mess with it. Marking the head noun with {-‘e’} already is about as fancy as Klingon gets with relative clauses.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On Sep 24, 2019, at 8:23 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Read:
> 
> {Qun 'oHbe'bogh vIghro''e' wIghajnISbe'}
> we don't need to have a cat which isn't a god
> 
> What is the role of the {-'e'} on the {vIghro'} ?
> 
> To give the "as for the.." meaning ?
> To mark the topic of the sentence ?
> To give emphasis to the {vIghro'} word ?
> 
> Or all of the above ?
> 
> ~ bara'qa'
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