On 2/9/2018 2:37 PM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
There is a problem I've been having, which I don't know how to overcome.
If I want to write a story in english, a story written in irrealis (if that's how we say it), then I can write:
"If I was a giant, and I was living in a castle above the clouds, I would be happy. And if my kingdom had many soft and furry cats.."
In klingon, in order to write something as the above, we have the {net jalchugh}.
However, (and here is my problem), if I want to write an entire story in irrealis, then what do I do ? Do I place the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ?
In the above example would I need to write {I am a giant net jalchugh, and I live in a castle above the clouds net jalchugh, I am happy net jalchugh..} ?
Wouldn't this make the reader "tired", reading the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ?
Is there any other way of approaching this ?
The Klingon *net jalchugh* isn't a grammatical mood; it just sets up the reader or listener to understand that what you're about to talk about is a counterfactual situation. Once the audience understands this, forget about it. But every time you offer a new ounterfactual idea, you have to use it again. *wochqu'wI' jIH net jalchugh 'ej 'eng Dung jem'IH vIDab net jalchugh, jIQuch. SepwIjDaq veD tun ghajbogh vIghro' law' tu'lu' net jalchugh...* Okrand himself gave an example of this when he explained *net jalchugh:* *tlhIngan SoH net jalchugh, qagh DatIv * /If you were a Klingon, you would enjoy gagh/ Notice that Okrand says *net jalchugh* is used for counterfactual ideas, not hypothetical ideas. The above sentence, he says, implies that you are /not/ a Klingon, not that you might be a Klingon. He compares this idea of counterfactual versus hypothetical: *qaghwIj DaSopchugh, qaHoH * /If you eat my gagh, I'll kill you./ *qaghwIj DaSop net jalchugh, qaHoH * /If you were eating my gagh, I would kill you / The first//one is hypothetical: you might eat my gagh. The second is counterfactual: you're not eating my gagh, but if you were... So my above Klingon translation of your sentence assumes I am /not/ a giant/,/ that I am /not/ living in a castle above the clouds, and that there are /not/ many soft, furry cats in my kingdom. But if that were true... // By the way, while your English sentence is colloquially fine, more formally English uses a subjunctive mood: /If I *were* a giant, and if I *were* living in a castle above the clouds, I *would be* happy. And if my kingdom *had* many soft and furry cats... /This is not the indicative past tense; it is the subjunctive mood. Most people nowadays ignore the subjunctive mood in English, in much the same way they ignore the word /whom./ -- SuStel http://trimboli.name