[tlhIngan Hol] irrealis {net jal} and the {net jalchugh}

mayqel qunen'oS mihkoun at gmail.com
Tue Feb 25 05:01:52 PST 2020


Suppose we say: {tlhIngan SoH net jalchugh..}

The literal translation of this phrase is, "if someone imagines that you're
a klingon..". However, for reasons I never understood, its' "final"
translation is "if you were a klingon..".

Why is this mismatch happening ? Is it a "because maltz said so" thing or
something ?

Anyways, moving on..

Assume that there are two klingons speaking, with regard to a recent
romulan incursion. So, one of them asks: "how did it go ?" And the second
wants to reply by saying "it could have been bad, but luckily..".

I'm wondering.. Could we express this by saying something like the
following ?

{qablaHpu' ghu' net jal..}

The literal translation would be "the situation has been able to be bad";
but why couldn't we translate this klingon sentence as in the {net
jalchugh} case, thus producing the meaning: "the situation could be bad" ?

Could we use the {net jal} on its own, producing  a similar irrealis, (or
however the @!#@ it's called), with the {net jalchugh} ?

mayqel qunen'oS
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