[tlhIngan Hol] Beginner questions - SAO, SAS and pronouns

[Will Martin]

I love this canon example because the Klingon is less ambiguous than its English translation.

In English, “But Captain, that course will take us into the Barrier as well,” could either mean that it will take US there as well as someone else, or it could mean it will take us THERE, as well as other places. We need context to figure out which is the case.

But in Klingon, {‘ach HoD, Hevetlh wIghoSchugh, veH tIn wI’el maH’e’} we have the first person plural subject indicated by the prefix {wI-}, with emphasis added by the explicit, uncommonly redundant pronoun {maH}, and just to make sure that the pronoun was noticed, it was marked with {-‘e’} so the Captain would recognize that the whole point of this sentence is to discuss something that WE are about to do. Not somebody else. WE.

It makes sense to verbally emphasize the {-‘e’}, since it is basically the equivalent of spitting after saying the word {taHqeq}. It’s making sure that the listener knows that word was not just casually included as a side note. That word is doing jumping jacks, waving signal flags, firing off flares and screaming to be noticed as important.

"Yo! The people heading into the Great Barrier right now? Those people are WE! WE are heading into the Great Barrier! You! Me! All the rest of the people on this ship. WE are heading into the Great Barrier. I’m not talking about anybody else, here. I’m talking about US! Got that?"

All that in one syllable. Yes, Klingon can be remarkably concise.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

> On Sep 28, 2020, at 10:16 AM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 
> Example:
> Vixis in Star Trek V: 'ach HoD, Hevetlh wIghoSchugh, veH tIn wI'el maH'e'. But Captain, that course will take us into the Barrier as well. Vixis doesn't give particular stress to the maH, but her voice rises on the 'e'.
> 
> -- 
> SuStel
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