<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">I think your question is valid, in that it is not fully thought out and I think you want to know what ideas would bring you to think it through more thoroughly.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">What is {‘Iv jIH?} asking? </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">It is really saying, “Given the set of beings capable of using language, identify which one I am.” It is not asking what TYPE of entity you are. It’s asking which unique entity you are. A name is an identifier. A role (my wife’s husband, my boss’s employee) is an identifier. A characteristic, like “stupid” is not an identifier.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Remember that “to be” is expressed two DIFFERENT ways in Klingon. {jIH} has to do with identity. tlhIngan jIH. charghwI’ jIH.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We don’t say, *QIp jIH* because the verb {QIp} already includes the verb “to be”. We just use the usual prefix {jI-} with descriptive verbs of being, like {QIp}.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So, to answer {‘Iv jIH?} or {jIH ‘Iv?} we use the pronoun as the identity-related verb and the noun (a role or a name) to replace the question word. {tlhIngan jIH} or {charghwI’ jIH}.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If the answer would be {jIQIp} or {jIQIpbe’}, then the question has to be {jIQIp’a’?}</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That’s just how the grammar works.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In English, we have one “to be” verb for identity or to link a subject to an adjective. In Klingon, the adjective IS THE VERB. You don’t use both forms of the English “to be” in a single Klingon sentence, and you don’t confuse which kind of “to be” question you are asking in Klingon.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Does this help?</div><br class=""><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan<br class=""><br class="">rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br class=""></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jan 8, 2020, at 9:22 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <<a href="mailto:mihkoun@gmail.com" class="">mihkoun@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div dir="auto" class="">Suppose someone wants to say:</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">"what am I ? stupid ?"</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">And suppose that the cookie monster, forbids him to say: {jIQIp'a' ?}, and be done with it, so he *has* to find a way to translate the "what am I ?".</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">How should he say it ? Should he say: {nuq jIH} ? Or should he say {'Iv jIH} ?</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">I'm troubled by this, because the way I *feel* the klingon {QIpwI'}, is it being more of an {'Iv} rather than a {nuq}.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">But reading {'Iv jIH}, I would expect to read something like {(name of a person) jIH}, rather that {QIpwI' jIH}.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">I don't know.. Perhaps I'm (overly) influenced by greek/english on this..</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">~ mayqel qunen'oS</div></div>
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