This is not a great translation, no matter how you look at it, though I suspect that the exchange is not:

“Why should we care about humans fighting each other?”
“I obviously remember it because honor is important."

It’s closer to:

“So, humans fight each other. Why do we care?”

“Because honor is important. I obviously remember that." 

It’s ugly, either way, but the {-mo’} part makes more sense as an answer to the previous question, instead of as a dependent clause for the main clause that follows it.

Anyway, I concede the point. Canon proves me wrong again.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

On Nov 17, 2020, at 1:49 PM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:

On 11/17/2020 1:43 PM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
Am 17.11.2020 um 19:09 schrieb Will Martin:
While I understand that it’s common in English and perhaps other human
languages to answer a “Why?” question with a dependent clause starting
with “Because”, I’m curious as to whether or not we can assume the same
is true in Klingon.

We have a clear canon example for this in Star Trek Into Darkness:

Klingon:
{toH, Hey Humanpu'. qatlh DISaH?}
"Why should I care about a human killing humans?"

Uhura:
{potlhmo' batlh, vIqawba'.}
"Because you care about honor."

I don't get what the vIqawba' is doing here. If it means what it looks like it means, I obviously remember it, then this is not a subordinate clause lacking a main clause.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name
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