tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 05 22:11:31 1996

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Re: KLBC - subordinate clauses

K'Daq writes:
> I have been trying to say " I am a warrior. I was born with a knife in my
>hand". (I know...ouch!) But the best I can come up with is.
>
> SuvwI' jIH jIboghpu' 'ej taj jInobta'
>
> Which at my struggling level says to me : I am a warrior. I was born and I
>was given a knife.

{SuvwI' jIH} is fine.  Often, {verb-wI' jIH} can be stated more simply as
{jI-verb}.  In this case, however, {SuvwI'} carries a bit more meaning
than just "one who fights", and {jISuv} "I fight" probably isn't as good
as "I am a warrior."

You probably should do something to mark the boundary between the two
sentences.  Standard punctuation (periods, commas, etc.) is appropriate;
some people prefer to put each Klingon sentence on a separate line.

The second sentence has a couple of problems.  First, you seem to be
mistranslating aspect as tense.  The verb suffixes {-pu'} and {-ta'}
indicate a completed action, but they don't mean the action happened in
the past.  I read what you wrote as saying:  "I am a warrior.  I have
been born and I have accomplished giving a knife."  Second, for "I was
given a knife" you need to use the verb suffix {-lu'}: {taj vInoblu'ta'}.
See TKD section 4.2.5 for the proper use of {-lu'}.

You need to read TKD 6.2.2 "Subordinate clauses" to see how type 9 verb
suffixes are used to say things like "When I was born, I had a knife in
my hand."  {jIboghDI' ghopwIjDaq taj vIghaj}.

> In addition, I've been trying to say, " I don't want to die alone."
>
> the best I can do is : mobbe' jIHegh     "I die not alone" but that isn't
>what I want. How do you handle several verbs in one sentence.....or am I
>screwing up with an English mind set AGAIN?

You're being slightly too literal with your translation.  "To die alone"
is short for "to die while being alone" and you need to recognize those
"implied" extra words in order to translate the meaning well.

Most type 9 verb suffixes are used to let a verb be subordinate to another.
Here are some examples, using {'oj} "be thirsty" and {tlhutlh} "drink":
{jI'ojchugh jItlhutlh} "If I am thirsty, I drink."
{jI'ojDI' jItlhutlh} "As soon as I am thirsty, I drink."
{jI'ojmo' jItlhutlh} "Because I am thirsty, I drink."
{jI'ojtaHvIS jItlhutlh} "While I am thirsty, I drink."
{jI'ojpa' jItlhutlh} "Before I am thirsty, I drink."

In order to translate "I don't want to die alone", we can restate it as:
I don't want that I die while I am alone. {jImobtaHvIS jIHegh 'e' vIneHbe'}.
(This doesn't carry with it any particular dread of dying; if you wanted to
mean something like "I'm afraid to die alone", the verb suffix {-vIp} might
come in handy.)

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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