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

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Wed Sep 30 08:47:38 PDT 2020


We do hear it in another form:  “May your prayers be answered” (the answer “yes” being implied).

Instead of {qaS} I would probably use {laj} “accept”.  There’s an idiom from paq’batlh:  {ghu' chup}:

 ghu' Dachupbogh vIlaj
  I will accept your proposal  (PB p. 144f.)

FYI there’s an interesting line from ENT "Affliction".  A struggling prisoner protested being a part of Dr. Antaak’s medical research:

  vImuHlu' net wuqHa'!  loHwI' vISuch 'e' vIpoQ!
  My death sentence was commuted! I demand to see the magistrate!

Unfortunately for him it didn’t work, and Gen. K’Vagh shot him anyway.  Making demands of a Klingon general is not a good idea.

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
__________________________________________________________________
From: SuStel
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2020 10:03 AM

On 9/30/2020 9:51 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:

"may your request be granted".

mu'tlheghvam wImughmeH, maqon: {qaSjaj chaballIj}. lugh'a' {-jaj} lo'vam ?

This is a peculiar circumlocution probably related to the station of the speaker, not typical grammar. A child asking a parent for a cookie won't hear "May your request be granted." I'm not sure that you'd hear it in English in this form, even from royalty. Without any information that Klingon upper echelons speak in a such a way, I wouldn't do it.  [….]

If someone says qaSjaj may it happen, they're not commanding that it be done or saying it will happen in the future. It's just the expression of a wish or desire on the part of the speaker: I hope it happens.

--

SuStel

http://trimboli.name<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/trimboli.name__;!!BpyFHLRN4TMTrA!uD4boqFbUDMW-2qH4Uekk6Abl7QLMM_2fl1xrVaL9iNxF-jQnH2vRiowIJ_Y48omVdE$>
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