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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/26/2020 10:34 AM, Will Martin
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:458BB857-CF42-4577-99A9-FA557469BD30@mac.com">
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<div class="">It sounds like Okrand has done some work to explain
how one might express the irrealis in Klingon. I’m ignorant of
that explanation. Forgive me, if I’m digging at something that I
should just be accepting. I’m honestly trying to understand this
mechanism.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>The explanation was given to us on the list by Lieven on November
3, 2016:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>------begin------
<br>
For a statement that's counterfactual (or "irrealis"), a phrase
with the verb jal ("imagine, envision") is used: ... net
jalchugh ("if one imagines that…", "if it is imagined that…").
For example:
<br>
<br>
tlhIngan SoH net jalchugh, qagh DatIv
<br>
This is "If you were a Klingon, you would enjoy gagh" or,
literally,
<br>
"If one imagines that you are a Klingon, you would enjoy gagh."
<br>
<br>
The implication is that you are not a Klingon. Compare:
<br>
<br>
qaghwIj DaSopchugh, qaHoH
<br>
"If you eat my gagh, I'll kill you."
<br>
qaghwIj DaSop net jalchugh, qaHoH
<br>
<br>
"If you were eating my gagh, I would kill you"
<br>
(literally: "If one imagines that you are eating my gagh…").
<br>
<br>
-------end-------
<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:458BB857-CF42-4577-99A9-FA557469BD30@mac.com">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
The way we used to do it was: {muleghpu’be’ ‘avwI’, vaj QaQ ghu’.}
"The guard has not seen me, thus the situation is good."
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">We could also use a rhetorical question, as is
common in American Sign Language: {qatlh jIQuch? muleghpu’be’
‘avwI’.} “Why am I happy? The guard didn’t see me."</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">If we want to talk about bad situations instead of
good ones, {muleghpu’be’mo’ ‘avwI’, ghu’ qab vIjunta’.} "I have
evaded a bad situation because the guard has not seen me."</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Sticking closer to the original suggestion:</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">{muleghpu’ ‘avwI’ net jalchugh, ghu’ qab jallu’pu’.}
"If one imagines that the guard had seen me, one has imagined a
bad situation."</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Now, the bad situation is pretty obviously the one
that has been imagined. I’m not talking about the event of
imagining the situation. I’m talking about the situation that
one has imagined.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">So, enlighten me. What do I have wrong here?</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Just that none of your sentences involve irrealis. They all have
to do with factual or conditional statements. Irrealis is about
hypothetical or counterfactual statements.<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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