On 8/8/2016 6:30 AM, De'vID wrote:
On 8 August 2016 at 11:14, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun@gmail.com> wrote:
ghunchu'wI':
"This one" doesn't make much sense in Klingon with the number {wa'}, especially when what "one" is counting hasn't been stated, and I can't figure out what "day of this one" would mean. I can't understand why {wa'vam} doesn't make sense. The word "one" in English has multiple meanings, only one of which applies to the Klingon {wa'}.
If I'm in a store and the Klingon storekeeper demands to know which of several similar items I want, I point and say {Dochvam}, not *{wa'vam}. In a police line-up, when I'm asked to identify the perpetrator, I point and say {nuvvetlh}, not *{wa'vetlh}. In English, "one" acts like a pronoun referring to a thing or person previously mentioned. It doesn't have this function in Klingon.
I wouldn't be too quick to say this. TKD 5.2: Numbers are used as nouns. As such, they may stand alone as subjects or objects or they may modify another noun. *mulegh cha'* /Two (of them) see me./ (*mulegh* /they see me,**/*cha'* /two/) *wa' yIHoH* /Kill one (of them)!/ (*wa'* /one,/ *yIHoH* /kill him/her!/) Now, the important thing here is that the examples demonstrate using numbers in a /partitive/ sense. That is, you're pointing out a certain number out of a whole. If this is the only way numbers can be used as nouns, then you can't use the **wa'vam* and **wa'vetlh *examples above. But the text doesn't make it explicit that this is the only way to use numbers as nouns. That said, I agree that mayqel's use of **wa'vam* is odd, and probably doesn't work. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name