[tlhIngan Hol] does -jaj have the "may your request be granted" meaning ?

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Thu Oct 1 06:57:53 PDT 2020


“So let it be written; so let it be done.”
(Pharaoh Rameses II [Yul Brynner], “The Ten Commandments” [1956])
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Voragh
_______________________________________________________________
From: Alan Anderson
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2020 11:42 PM
On Sep 30, 2020, at 9:37 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com<mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>> wrote:

SoS tu'lu', 'ej bIghHa'Daq ghaHtaH puqloDDaj'e'. puqloDDaj jonHa'meH
voDleH, voDleH qoy'choH SoS, 'ej tagha' Qochbe' voDleH, vaj jatlh:

"may your request be granted".
mu'tlheghvam wImughmeH, maqon: {qaSjaj chaballIj}. lugh'a' {-jaj} lo'vam ?

I don’t understand the question. Of course -jaj is appropriate when expressing a desire for something to happen in the future. That’s what it means.

The only way I can see for you to be confused about it is if you think “may your request be granted” means the same thing as “your request is granted.” I have encountered similar phrases using ”let” instead of “may”. They’re both “permission” words, but I only know “let” for the equivalent of a third-person imperative.

However...

At qep'a' wejDIch, Marc Okrand gave a brief speech in Klingon before the Cabaret. He ended with taghjaj Qujmey, and translated it as Let the games begin! That’s a bit of evidence in favor of using -jaj for the kind of idea that you might be asking about.
-- ghunchu'wI'
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