[tlhIngan Hol] object of the verb {SIS}

[Steven Boozer]

(Lieven < MO, qepHom 2017):  When you cut your bread and the crumbs fall out (like snow), you use the verb {peD}.  It can also be used for instance, when you throw confetti, and the confetti falls down, then use {peD}.  So, with other words, {peD} still means to snow, but it does not only refer to snow, but can also be used for other small things falling down slowly or rain down, like ashes.  During explaining, it seemed like the bread is the subject of {peD}, but also the bread crumbs themselves.  I don't know of a general word other than snow.  Maybe rain down, but that's confusing, because rain still is {SIS}.  Okrand did not give the English word for it, he just explained it.

Transcript follows:

MO: We just found a new word.
LLL:  Really? Tell me.
MO: You got a piece of bread, a roll, with a hard crust, or whatever, 
         and you cut it or you bite into it, it makes little crumbs.
LLL:  In German you would say krümeln. "Das Brötchen krümelt." It means 
         the little crumbs are falling out of it.
MO: Yes. The Klingon word for that is {peD}.
LLL:  So, could there be other things falling out?
MO: Maybe.
LLL:  Oh, {peD} is "snowing" anyway. So it can also be used for crumbs.
MO: So the bread is doing that. Or has done that.
LLL:  Would there be other... Oh no, it's not transitive, so you cannot 
         {peD} something. It's only {peD}.
MO:     [nods]
LLL:  Is there anything else we need to know?
MO: Oh, probably. Most people need to know a lot of things.
LLL:  So I'll have the questions later. It's not a new word, anyway.
MO: No. It's a new usage.
LLL:  An extension of an existing word, I understand.
MO: Yes. And that's one way to protect the three letters words. Cause
         they're an endangered species. You told me.
LLL:  You said it's for crumbs. What if I take confetti, for example, 
         throw it in the air and it's raining down... so it's for everything
         falling down slowly?
MO:     [nods]
LLL:  But not rain?
MO: No.
LLL:  So, water... If I'm spraying water we have {ghay}. And {SIS} is only
         related to rain.
MO: No; {SIS} can also be used for something else, but I can't remember
         right now.

Okrand may have been thinking of a chat he had with DloraH back in 1998:

(DloraH, personal conversation with MO, 5/1998):   It rained a few times during the weekend, so we were put into the situation to discuss it.  {SIS.  SISqu'.  SIStaH.  SISchoH.}  All correct.  {SISlu'}, although grammatically correct, he didn't particularly like...  You can also give it an object and say things like "the clouds rained down cats and dogs" ... or something like that; you get the idea.  But when Marc and I went outside and drops of water were falling on us, he looked up and simply said "{SIS}". 

The only paq’batlh line I know of with {SIS} is:

ghIq QavwI'chaj DuQchu' 
   qeylIS betleH 
   chaHDaq SIStaHvIS negh 'Iw 
Then Kahless's bat'leth 
   Pierced the last of them, 
   Showered with the soldiers' blood.   (PB 136-37)

--
Voragh, Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

-----------------------------------Original Message-----------------------------------
From: Lieven L. Litaer
Am 15.06.2021 um 13:35 schrieb mayqel qunen'oS:
> the paq'batlh line says that the thing which is raining down is blood. 
> [...] we have "that something else"
> being the actual subject.

I haven't read the interview, nor the paqbatlh lines exactly.

But I'd like to add that when Okrand told us about breadrumbs and confetti falling down, he used the verb {peD} – and the things raining down are the subject of the verb. I'm not saying this applies to {SIS} as well, but it's good to know.