[tlhIngan Hol] Whether

[Will Martin]

While he’s excellently capable of defending his proposition, I’m with SuStel on this one. It conveys the meaning excellently, without messing with QaO (Question as Object, which is not a thing in Klingon).

I’ll add that I think, “I wonder whether whether Mike stole my pie,”  is a rather day-dreamy thing for a Klingon to say. “Maybe he stole it. Maybe he didn’t. I don’t know. I guess I’d sort of like to know. Gee, I wonder if there’s any way to know for sure. If anybody hears anything about my pie or anybody who might know whether Mike took it or not, it sure would be nice if somebody told me.”

It would be much more in character to walk up to Mike, head-butt him and ask, nose to nose: {chabwIj DanIH, qar’a’?}

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On Jun 10, 2024, at 9:03 PM, André Müller via tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol at lists.kli.org> wrote:
> 
> But {Sov} and {SIv} don't work the same way. It is stated that {SIv} can be used after {'e'} and then explicitly can be translated as "to wonder if". The semantics of the verb allow this reading.
> Not so with {Sov}. Here you'd have a question as the object, which isn't allowed in Klingon.
> 
>> chabwIj nIHpu' Mike 'e' vISovbe'
>> I don't know whether Mike stole my pie.
>> 
> 
> I don't accept this translation.
> That sentence can only mean:
> "I don't know that Mike stole my pie."
> (or perhaps in a more usual context "I didn't know that...")
> 
> Think of {SIv} as "I want to know the truth value of the sentence..." which is essentially what "wonder if" means. {Sov} doesn't seem to have that particular reading.
> 
> — André / Vortarulo
> 
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