[tlhIngan Hol] yuQ Suv Duj 'ar or yuQ luSuv Duj 'ar ?

[Will Martin]

It doesn’t look like anyone has answered this, so… I’ll give you an answer more interesting than most people want me to.

We can’t be certain whether we should say {yuQ Suv Duj ‘ar} or {yup luSuv Duj ‘ar}. Your approach (including {lu-}) is reasonable and would be acceptable to those we know who speak the language. No one would correct you with any authority. If anyone had an authoritative answer, they would have given it by now. Eight days passed, and nobody replied.

The issue has not come up frequently enough for there to be a precedent by which others could judge you as right or wrong. We might all come to agreement on the better way to state this and then discover some canon example proving us, if not wrong, then at least not always right.

The most important thing here is: Ask this kind of question as you have asked it, and people will understand you well without cause to correct you.

As an alternative approach, in the specific example you give, you could choose to omit {lu-} simply because omitting {lu-} when one obviously should use it is THE most common error for Klingon speakers. Canon examples are littered with it. So, if you SHOULD use {lu-} and you don’t, then it’s not much of a mistake, and if you SHOULDN’T use {lu-} and you don’t, it’s not a mistake at all, so by that logic, if you are hypersensitive to the potential of making an offensive mistake, omit {lu-} because, hey, if Okrand frequently forgets it, nobody is going to give YOU a hard time for forgetting it, and maybe you shouldn’t be using it in this example ANYWAY. We don’t know.

So, you are more likely to be correct with {lu-} and you are safer from being offensively wrong without {lu-}.

bISuDqang’a’?

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On Feb 10, 2020, at 8:04 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This must be pretty straightforward, but I'll ask anyway.
> 
> Recently, we'd been given the following examples, with regards to how
> the construction {noun 'ar}, is to be treated, i.e. singular or
> plural.
> 
> Duj 'ar DIlegh ?
> 
> bIQ 'ar wIlegh ?
> 
> So, if the questioned object is countable, then we use a plural prefix.
> 
> But does the opposite apply too ?
> 
> If we have a questioned subject which is countable, then do we again
> use a plural prefix ?
> 
> Should one say {yuQ Suv Duj 'ar} or {yuQ luSuv Duj 'ar} ?
> 
> I'm pretty sure it must be {yuQ luSuv Duj 'ar}, but I'd like to make certain.
> 
> ~ mayqel qunen'oS
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