2013-09-18

"Which:" the Verb Suffix -bogh

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When you need to say something along the lines of The book that you are reading, The weapon which you prefer or The place where the alien slept, you are using what is known as a relative clause: a clause beginning with who, which, where or that.

These kinds of clauses require the Type 9 verb suffix -bogh.

-bogh Which

The relative-clause marker is used to modify a verb, which is then attached to a noun and modifies it in the manner of an adjective. The noun which is modified in the relative clause is known as the head noun.

The head noun can come before or after the verb in the relative clause, depending on whether the head noun is in the position of being an instigator of the activity (where it would appear after the modifying verb as a subject), or the recipient of the activity (where it appears before the modifying verb as an object).

Examples of an active head noun:

taDmoHbogh taSA freezing solution/
(a solution which causes freezing)
So'taHbogh ghoqwI'A spy who is hiding
He'So'bogh naHA fruit that stinks
qetbogh loDA running man
baHtaHbogh DujmeyThe ships that are firing
bejchu'bogh 'avwI'The watchful guard/
(the guard who watches perfectly)

The verb can take on other kinds of suffixes, but one of the commonest is the Type 5 suffix -lu' indefinite subject, conveying the meaning is being, or has been or had been in conjunction with the Type 7 aspect marker suffixes -pu' perfective or -ta' done, accomplished.

Some more examples:-

mu'mey choHlu'pu'boghThe words which had been altered
lutmey ja'lu'pu'boghThe stories which had been told
Dargh tlhutlhlu'boghThe tea which is being drunk

On Friday, we'll see how these are used in Klingon sentences.

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