[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: SIv

[Steven Boozer]

Klingon word: 	SIv
Part of speech: 	verb
Definition: 	wonder
Source: 	TKD:K-E
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tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISIv
I wonder if you speak Klingon.  
I am curious about whether you speak Klingon.
 (msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand 7/01/1997)

(msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand 7/01/1997):  All four words asked about... can be used in the construction {S 'e' V}, where S is a sentence, {'e'} is the pronoun (that) which refers to a previous topic (in this case S), and V is one of the verbs listed above (as well as some others). If the sentence (S) is {tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh} "you speak Klingon", it's OK to say... {tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISIv} "I wonder if you speak Klingon".  (The fourth example is weird from an English translation point of view, but it falls right in line in Klingon. If the English translation matched the pattern of the other three sentences, it would be "I wonder that you speak Klingon".  In English, this means something like "I'm surprised that you speak Klingon" or "I don't understand how it can be that you speak Klingon", but this is not what the Klingon sentence means. The Klingon sentence means something more like "I am curious about whether you speak Klingon".  The clumsiness here is the English, not the Klingon.)

 (Will Martin/charghwI' interviews Marc Okrand, HQ 7.4 [Dec. 1998]):
WM: ... the verb {SIv}, which was really interesting.
MO:  That one, yes. I've wondered about that a lot. I spent a good chunk of one summer, one or two summers ago, - I'm not trying to make a pun here, but - wondering about how that works.

(charghwI' [date?])"  More recently, however, [Okrand] has made a big joke about how uncertain he is about how {SIv} works. He kept saying, "I wonder about {SIv}," and then he'd grin.

SEE ALSO:
buS 		concentrate on, focus on, think only about (v)
qIm 		pay attention (v)
vuQ 		fascinate (v)
jal 		imagine, envision, think about (v)

boqHar 		miracle, wonder (n)
ngar 		be miraculous, wondrous (v)
Dun 		be wonderful, great (v)

--
Voragh, Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
    Please contribute relevant vocabulary or notes from the last 
    year or two. I’ve fallen woefully behind in updating my files.