[tlhIngan Hol] literal meaning of the {net jalchugh}

[Steven Boozer]

Here’s Okrand’s post to Lieven for review:

(Lieven < MO, qepHom, 11/03/2016):  For a statement that's counterfactual (or "irrealis"), a phrase with the verb jal ("imagine, envision") is used: {... net jalchugh} ("if one imagines that…", "if it is imagined that…").  For example:
     {tlhIngan SoH net jalchugh, qagh DatIv}
This is "If you were a Klingon, you would enjoy gagh" or, literally, "If one imagines that you are a Klingon, you would enjoy gagh."  The implication is that you are not a Klingon. Compare:
     {qaghwIj DaSopchugh, qaHoH}
       "If you eat my gagh, I'll kill you."
     {qaghwIj DaSop net jalchugh, qaHoH}
       "If you were eating my gagh, I would kill you"
(literally: "If one imagines that you are eating my gagh …").

--
Voragh, Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
______________________________________________________________________
From: SuStel

On 2/23/2021 9:20 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
SuStel:
> You are thinking in English, not Klingon.
> net jalchugh means exactly what it says
> and introduces an irrealis.

But this is what I don't understand; what does the {net jalchugh} say? "if you are" or "if you were"?

It says if one imagines. The sentence that precedes it is the situation that one might imagine. Since it is imagined, it is not real, thus an irrealis.

--

SuStel

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