[tlhIngan Hol] If pIqaD became Ca'Non..

[David Holt]

Even if we are never shown any other punctuation on screen, I think the wording of your statement is misleading. The marks are not actually a comma and a period. I would say that pIqaD has two punctuation marks: One for separating sentences and one for separating ideas within a sentence. English punctuation marks can be divided into these two groups, but we have multiple choices in the sentence separating group.

What I want to avoid is the idea that when translating a question, we don't say, well you have to end the question with a period because Klingon only has periods. English also does not have an interrogative suffix; things are going to be slightly different in the two languages. If the Klingon uses a question word or the -'a' verb suffix, then the English should use a question mark even though Klingon only has one type of sentence ending mark. Similarly with exclamation marks on exclamations.

If writing in Okrandian transcription, I would actually accept periods on questions and exclamations, though since you are using the Roman character set, it's a shame not to use the variety of punctuation marks available where appropriate.

janSIy (Jeremy, not David)

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________________________________
From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org> on behalf of mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 7:40:30 AM
To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list <tlhingan-hol at kli.org>
Subject: [tlhIngan Hol] If pIqaD became Ca'Non..

I just thought of something interesting..

If pIqaD ever became Ca'Non, with the usual community-approved way by
which things become Ca'Non, then perhaps that would mean that..

Klingon has place for no other punctuation except periods and commas,
since these are the only punctuation signs for which there are pIqaD
symbols.

~ mayqel qunen'oS
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