[tlhIngan Hol] thoughts on the perfective {-pu'}

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Tue Apr 5 09:28:07 PDT 2022


FYI {jIj} also shows up in {yuQjIjQa'} United Federation of Planets, {'amerI'qa' SepjIjQa'} United States of America and {tuqjIjQa'} United Kingdom.

(I don’t believe we’ve ever discovered the difference for the two words for the United Federation of Planets.  Note that there are three types of *{jIjQa’} – {yuQ} (planet), {Sep} (region, country) and {tuq} (tribe, House, ancestral unit, lineage) – and that a *{Qa’} seems to be some sort of political union.  See also {qarDaSQa'} for the Cardassian Union.  How a *{Qa’} is different from a {DIvI'} “federation, organization, association, league, union” is unknown AFAIK.)

The confusion WRT {jIj} was clarified in KGT:

(KGT 159):  The slang term [{qang} “always agree with/go along/cooperate with (someone)”] may be found in such sentences as {jIHDaq Daqang} (“You always agree with me, you always cooperate with me”;  literally, "You pour [something] into me").  To say that someone “pours (always agrees)” is somewhat derogatory, implying that the agreeing or cooperating may be for ulterior motives.  Nonslang equivalents of {qang}, though lacking the negative connotation, are {reH Qochbe'} (“always agree”), {reH yeq} (“always cooperate”), and {reH jIj} (“always be cooperative”).
--Voragh


From: Will Martin
My vote, until we get something more specific about this, is that {jIj} is actually two different words that sound alike and have similar meanings, just like in English you can cooperate or be cooperative. You can’t cooperative, and you can’t be cooperate. In English, “cooperate” and “cooperative” are different words, sound different, but they share etymological roots. In Klingon, perhaps they simply sound alike, but are used differently.

On Apr 5, 2022, at 10:23 AM, Iikka Hauhio <fergusq at protonmail.com<mailto:fergusq at protonmail.com>> wrote:

I don't automatically take every gloss that starts with be as proving a quality verb, so I'm not convinced jIj is one.
​
jIj is used in yuQjIjDIvI' etc. where it seems to be used adjectivally (Union of cooperative planets). As it's a compound we cannot be sure that its components can be used individually, but it's some evidence for jIj being a quality verb.

It should be noted that the "be cooperative" meaning was given after the "cooperate" meaning. I don't see why to publish this new gloss unless the reason was to clarify that jIj indeed can be used as a quality verb.


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