tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jun 05 02:25:24 1994
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jIlIH'egh
- From: [email protected] (Mark E. Shoulson)
- Subject: jIlIH'egh
- Date: Sun, 5 Jun 1994 14:22:18 -0400
- In-Reply-To: "William H. Martin"'s message of Thu, 2 Jun 94 12:28:17 EDT <[email protected]>
>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 12:28:17 EDT
>Keep at it. You show a lot of promise. I'll leave it to the
>grammarians to point out the tweaking that your statements
>need.
Grammarians? That's me! Oops, I'd better get through me mail!
>According to [email protected]:
>> Steve vIpong'egh
This one's tricky already. According to the dictionary, "-'egh" can only
go on verbs with "no-object" prefixes (of which "vI-" isn't one.) This
does lead to a question of how to express what you want to say: "I call
myself Steve". This question has been bounced around here a lot, and it's
not a simple one. Me, I'm inclined to say just use "Steve jIpong'egh",
taking "Steve" as a noun that';s not subject or object, which comes first
in a sentence, according to section 6.1. It's a little iffy, I know, since
it has no type 5 suffix. Sorry. Maybe there's a better way. There's
always "Steve 'oH pongwIj'e'".
>> wa'Hu'Daq tlhIngan mu'ghom vIje'ta'
"wa'Hu'Daq" doesn't really work. "-Daq" is a spatial suffix, meaning
somewhere near something *in space*. We know that it's not used for time
because we have the phrase in the phrasebook "qaStaHvIS wa' ram loS SaD
Hugh SIjlaH qetbogh loD" for "four thousand throats can be cut in one night
by a running man". Note that Okrand deliberately avoids "-Daq" where
English uses "in", because "-Daq" is given as meaning something to do with
the *vicinity* of the noun.
So how do you say "yesterday"? Well, if you get a copy of the tape
_Conversational Klingon_, you'll hear it. just "wa'Hu'" at the beginning
of the sentence. The noun is used adverbially, like it is in English.
Okrand says "wa'Hu' jIghung" for "yesterday I was thirsty". Similarly, the
"-ta'" you have on your sentence may not be the best choice. See, if you
eread the section carefully, you'll see that "-ta'" and "-pu'" are *not*
equivalent to English past tense. Klingon doesn't use tenses; it uses
aspects. "-ta'" indicates that an action is completed at the time under
discussion. Since you have "wa'Hu'" at the beginning of your sentence, you
basically say "Yesterday I had bought a klingon dictionary". You probably
just want "wa'Hu' tlhIngan Hol mu'ghom vIje'" (somehow I like it better
with the "Hol" on it).
>> jIHDaq Daj tlhIngan pab
Intuitively, I think I like "jIHvaD" better than "jIHDaq". "-Daq" is too
spatial. "For me..." yeah. Here, too, I think you need "tlhIngan Hol
pab". Otherwise, it's "the grammar of a Klingon (or Klingons)" and not
"the grammar of the language of Klingon(s)".
>> <more> vIghojtaH 'e' vIneH
See section 6.2. The verb "neH" doesn't use "'e'". Go figure.
>> pabpo'pu' mu'mey vIloS
batlh bIlIH'eghta', Steve. SoHvo' ghItlhmey law' DIleghjaj.
>>
>> --steve
~mark