[tlhIngan Hol] nuq'e' / 'Iv'e'

[SuStel]

On 11/20/2020 4:55 PM, Will Martin wrote:
> I’ve always been curious as to why the sentence wasn’t {nuqDaq puchpa’ 
> ‘oHtaH?}
>
> The answer would be to point down the hall and say {nIHDaq puchpa’ 
> ‘oHtaH} (sung to the tune of “Theeeere’s a Bathroom, On The Right”, 
> a.k.a. “There’s a Bad Moon On The Rise”).
>
> It seems weird to answer {nIHDaq ‘oH puchpa’’e’.} It’s just different 
> from all the other “to be” sentence structures. It would be like 
> saying {maH tlhIngan’e’} instead of {tlhIngan maH.}
>
> {nuqDaq} is not the thing that is synonymous with bathroom. It’s the 
> place the bathroom is being. We usually handle that with {X-Daq 
> ‘oHtaH.} We usually use {-‘e’} when we have a pronoun between two 
> nouns, neither of which is a locative.

When you use a copula sentence in Klingon, you're not saying the two 
things are synonymous. You're saying there is a link between them. The 
verbal suffixes on the pronoun and the syntactic suffixes on the noun 
tell you what that link is.

*nIHDaq 'oH puchpa''e'
*/The bathroom is on the right./*
*The link between *nIH* and *puchpa'* is that when talking about the 
bathroom, its location is on the right.

*HoD ghaHvIp torgh'e'
*/Torg is afraid to be the captain.
/The link between *HoD* and *torgh* is that when talking about Torg, he 
is afraid of being the captain.

*jagh chaHbe' Human'e'
*/The humans are not enemies.
/The link between *jagh* and *Human* is that when talking about humans, 
they have a negative identification with enemies.

Don't think of copula sentences as working like basic sentences, with 
subject and objects and verbs. They follow their own completely distinct 
grammar.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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