tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 02 08:25:49 1996

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Re: KLBC:yI

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>Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 13:18:09 -0700
>From: Dixon <[email protected]>

>jIwa'maH Soch *Nova Scotia, Canada* jIyIn jImusha tlhIngan hol
>tun vImojpu' ghojjen jIjaH De'wI' jIchamwI'

>This is an attempt to write a bit i hope it makes sense.

Oog.  I think you need some help.  Let's start small.

"jIwa'maH" doesn't parse to me.  "wa'maH" means "ten"; it's a number.
"jI-" is a verb-prefix; you put it on the beginnings of verbs to indicate
that the verb has "I" as subject and no object.  You can't put a
verb-prefix on a number; numbers aren't verbs.  I *think* you mean "I'm
living in Nova Scotia for seventeen years", is that right?  You're missing
the "years" part.  There's no simple "for" in this sense in Klingon: you
need to recast.  Think in terms of "while seventeen years occur, I live in
Nova Scotia": qaStaHvIS wa'maH Soch DIS, "Nova Scotia, Canada"Daq jIyIn.
Note that -Daq; you live IN Nova Scotia, you don't live it.  Note also that
some people don't really like using "yIn" to mean "live" in the sense of
"reside", but so far it's acceptable.

Since we're writing in English letters anyway, it's okay to use punctuation
(Okrand does so himself).  Please do so, to help keep things clear.

"jImuSHa' tlhIngan Hol" also needs some work... starting with correct
capitalization of jImuSHa' and putting the apostrophe in.  Remember that
the apostrophe is a full letter of Klingon, and not putting it in is like
deciding you don't need to write T's in English anymore.  You're obviously
trying to say "I love the Klingon Language", but your word-order is wrong.
Remember that Klingon sentences have the *object* first, then the verb, and
lastly the subject.  The object is the thing you love, in this case:
tlhIngan Hol.  It needs to come first.  THEN the verb.  Note, though, that
in this situation, the subject of the verb is "I", but there *is* an
object.  The object is 3rd-person singular (it--the Klingon Language).  So
you can't use the "jI-" prefix; you need to use "vI-".  Since "vI-"
specifies the subject well enough, you don't need to state it afterwords
(as you didn't), though you could.  So the sentence would be "tlhIngan Hol
vImuSHa'."

Your last sentence is more puzzling.  I can't really make it out too
clearly.  "tun" is a verb meaning "to be soft."  Used alone, it seems to
mean "it is soft".  Then you have vImojpu': I have become it.  Do you mean
"I have become soft"?  That would use another construction (-choH); let's
not get too complex yet.  Suffice to say that you can't have two main verbs
in the same sentence; one has to have a type-9 suffix or be part of a
sentence-as-object construction.

"ghojjen"... Compounding verbs?  ghoj=to learn, jen=to be high... We are
not told that Klingon compounds verbs like that, only nouns.  Do you mean
"High School"?  That's an idiom... You could probably just say "DuSaQ" and
leave it at that.  "jIjaH"/"I go"... if you go TO school, I'd expect
"DuSaQDaq jIjaH" (or "DuSaQ vIghoS", maybe "DuSaQ vIjaH")... either
"school" is the object (in which case the verb needs an object-ful
prefix), or it's a locative (in which case it should have -Daq on it).
"chamwI'" is a noun again; you can't put a verb prefix on a noun.  To say
"I am a computer technician" you need to say "De'wI' chamwI' jIH."

I think maybe you should start a little simpler, and punctuate your
sentences so they're easier to read.  But it's a good start!

~mark




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