[tlhIngan Hol] Apposition in the *paq'batlh*

[Will Martin]

I don’t know the whole story of paq’batlh. I want to make sure that you are telling me that some other part of the story establishes that Molor is the son of Markag, right? Also, you are sure that Molar isn’t sending his brother as his envoy, right?

Some other context has told you that the envoy is not the son of Markag?

The English translation does not make that clear.

"What is an envoy of Molor,
Son of Markag, doing in these woods?"

That can mean either:

1. What is an envoy of [Molar, Son of Markag] doing in these woods?

2. What is [an envoy of Molar], [Son of Markag] doing in these woods?

Nothing in the English sentence tells us whether “Son of Markag” is in apposition with just “Molar” or “envoy of Molar.

Honestly, if I just saw the Klingon {qatlh ngemDaq ghaHtaH molor Duy'e' marqagh puqloD’e’}, I’d definitely interpret that the apposition is that one person is being addressed, and that one person is both the envoy of Molar and son of Markag. The choice to put {-‘e’} on both {Duy} and {puqloD} suggest heavily that they are of equal note in the question. You know it’s not two people because {ghaH} is singular, and if there were only one {-‘e’}, it would be something like “the son of Markag’s envoy’s Molar” or “Molar’s envoy’s Markag’s son."

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On Oct 20, 2023, at 6:36 AM, luis.chaparro--- via tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol at lists.kli.org> wrote:
> 
> Thank you, Voragh, as always, for the useful information!
> 
> Yes, the problem is that in other examples of appositions only the last noun has, if needed, a type 5 suffix (like in noun-noun constructions) and, in addition to this, in the sentence of the *paq'batlh* the son of Markag is actually Molor, and not the envoy. So I don't really understand the grammar of that sentence.
> 
> 
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