Here’s an old post from Okrand you’ll find useful: --Voragh ************************************************************************ From: MarcOkrand Newsgroups: msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand Date: December 12, 1996 Subject: What do you think? [ … ] (2) You suggested translating "What is your favorite month?" as: jarlIj qaq nuq? This one's a little easier to deal with. Your sentence literally means "What is your preferable month?" The basic syntax is correct. Question words (in this case, nuq "what?") function the same way pronouns do in questions with "to be" in the English translations. Thus, the question yIH nuq? "What is a tribble?" is exactly parallel the statement yIH 'oH "It is a tribble" (where yIH is "tribble" and 'oH is "it"). The answer to the question yIH nuq? ("What is a tribble?") would presumably be a definition or description of a tribble. This being the case, then, the answer to the question jarlIj qaq nuq? ("What is your preferable month?") would presumably be a definition of "your favorite month." But this is not what you want to find out by asking your question. What you really mean to ask is something like "Of all the months, which one do you prefer?" The first word in your sentence, jarlIj, means "your month" (jar "month," -lIj "your"). But given that what you're really asking is "Which month do you prefer?" it's not really "your month" at all. The "you" should go with the verb, not with "month." Which brings us to the verb. You use qaq, "be preferable," adjectivally (jarlIj qaq is "your preferable month"). I think what you mean is better expressed by using the verb maS "prefer" with "you" as the subject: jar DamaS "you prefer the month." If you want to highlight the notion of "most prefer," you can use the emphatic suffix -qu': jar DamaSqu' "you very much prefer the month." (In this case, since "prefer" involves making a choice, the one chosen is automatically the one that is "most" preferred.) So what about the "what" (or "which") of your original question ("What/which is your favorite month?")? When asking someone a question of this type, you are really asking him or her to make a choice. So just be a Klingon and order them to do so: "Identify the month that you very much prefer!": jar DamaSqu'bogh yIngu' DamaSqu'bogh "that you very much prefer" (DamaSqu' "you very much prefer it" plus -bogh "which," the relative-clause marker) modifies jar "month" and the whole phrase jar DamaSqu'bogh "the month that you very much prefer" is the object of the verb ngu' ("identify"), which is preceded by the imperative prefix yI- ("do something to it!"). [ … ] ************************************************************************ From: tlhIngan-Hol [mailto:tlhingan-hol-bounces@lists.kli.org] On Behalf Of mayqel qunenoS I really can't think of a reason why this could be wrong.. It is sweet and simple; the answer goes right into the place of {nuq} and we're all happy.. ~ nIghma' On Oct 25, 2017 9:52 PM, "mayqel qunenoS" <mihkoun@gmail.com<mailto:mihkoun@gmail.com>> wrote: We know that we can't say {nuq jar DamaS} for "which month you prefer ?". But if we say: {jar'e' nuq DamaS ?} as for a month, which do you prefer ? Would this be correct ? ~ nIghma'

On 10/25/2017 3:22 PM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:

I really can't think of a reason why this could be wrong..

It is sweet and simple; the answer goes right into the place of {nuq} and we're all happy..

~ nIghma'

On Oct 25, 2017 9:52 PM, "mayqel qunenoS" <mihkoun@gmail.com <mailto:mihkoun@gmail.com>> wrote:

We know that we can't say {nuq jar DamaS} for "which month you prefer ?".

But if we say:

{jar'e' nuq DamaS ?} as for a month, which do you prefer ?

Would this be correct ?

It is an intolerably vague question. It doesn't mean /Wh//ich month do you prefer?/ it means /As for months, what do you prefer?/ This doesn't say that you're looking for a month as an answer to the question; it just says that months are the topic of the question, and now the speaker would like your preference on something. In fact, months are specially set apart from the *nuq,* which is supposed to stand in place of the answer. Maybe someone would answer*jar tuj vImaS*; maybe someone else would answer *jarvam /Cheerios/ vImaS 'ach jar vorgh /Raisin Bran /vImaS.* Someone /could/ interpret it as a query about one's favorite month, but you'd have to set them up for that understanding through context. What's wrong with doing it the way Okrand said? *jar DamaSbogh yIngu'*. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name