tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 13 19:52:43 1995
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Re: Hello
On Tue, 13 Jun 1995, Elizabeth C. Hoyt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is my first attempt at speaking (ok, writing) tlhIngan Hol to people
> who actually understand it, so I'm adding what I ment to say in English.
Welcome to the List! My name is yoDtargh and I'm the Beginners'
Grammarian. I'm here to assist beginners with learning the basics of
Klingon.
> lIH'egh HIchaw'
When the verb in {lIH'egh} does not have a verb prefix, it means
"He/she/it/they introduce themselves". Also, you are causing the verb
{chaw'} to have two objects: "me" (indicated by the verb prefix, and
the sentence {lIH'egh}.
There are two ways you could say "Allow me to introduce myself".
1. Use a sentence as object construction (Sec. 6.2.5.) and make
{jIlIH'egh} (I introduce myself) the object of {chaw'}:
jIlIH'egh 'e' yIchaw'. (Allow that I introduce myself.)
2. Use a purpose clause (Sec. 6.2.4.) and make {jIlIH'egh} the purpose
for {HIchaw'}:
jIlIH'eghmeH HIchaw'. (In order for me to introduce myself, allow me.)
or "Allow for me to introduce myself", "Permit me to introduce myself."
> Elizabeth pongwI' 'ach Liz SuponglaH pong tlhIngan QaQ 'e' vI tu'pa'
To say "X is Y", you use the formula in Sec. 6.3., {Y <pronoun> X'e'}.
Also, since "my name" is not something which is capable of using
language, you would use {-wIj} instead of {-wI'}:
Elizabeth 'oH pongwIj'e'. (My name is Elizabeth.)
{pong} is an unusual verb in that it would appear use two objects. We
are not really sure how to indicate who is being named, and the name
itself, but you could probably say {Liz tuponglaH} (You can call
me Liz.)
"A good Klingon name" would be {tlhIngan pong QaQ} and since {'e'} is
only used when a complete sentence is the object of the next verb, you would
not use {'e'} here since "a good Klingon name" is not a complete sentence.
Liz tuponglaH tlhIngan pong QaQ vItu'pa'. (You can call me Liz before I
find a good Klingon name.)
> cha'maH wa' DISmeywIlaw' 'ej ghog'a'wIlI' jIH
I'm not quite sure what {-wIlaw'} and {-wIlI'} are doing in this sentence.
To say "I am 21 years old" you could probably say {cha'maH wa' DIS
vIghaj} (I have 21 years), or to be clearer, {cha'maH wa' ben jIbogh} (I
was born 21 years ago). Note that plural suffixes, like {-mey}, are not
neccessary when numbers are used.
> (I need a better way to say college, adding 'a' to ghogwI' sounds like
> I'm saying "big student")
In the order of suffixes, {-'a'} comes after {-wI'} and since {-lI'} is a
verb suffix, you could put it on {jIH} instead of {ghojwI''a'}. In
Klingon, pronouns function as verbs when the sentence does not have a
main verb.
We don't know much about the Klingon education system, but maybe you could
use something like {DuSaQ 'Itlh} (an advanced school) for "college".
DuSaQ 'Itlh ghojwI' jIHlI'. (I'm in the process of being a student of an
advanced school.) or "I'm currently a college student."
> Liz
yoDtargh