tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 19 13:09:19 1996

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Re: new here

On 19 Jun 96 at 2:51, KATIE MONCELSI wrote:

> I have the Klingon Dictionary, but I don't understand how to write
> it so that it's understandable.  I read through it and understand
> how to make the words and write them.  But when it comes to making
> sentences that aren't in the book I have problems with them. 
> Could you e-mail me back and tell me how this should have been
> written. 

Take a moment to think about how you learned English.  If it is your
primary language, you learned it by a slow process of listening to
what was being said around you as you grew.  If you learned it in
school, you learned it in a slow process of being shown examples,
and having rules explained in a class.  In neither case could
someone give you a five minute capsule which enabled you to then
suddenly speak and write correct English.

Here are some suggestions:

1)  There are lots of messages here in Klingon.  Pick one or two at 
random which seem to have shorter sentances and work backwards.  Use 
the dictionary portion of TKD to figure out what the words are, and 
build the meaning from there.  (Remember that many words in use have 
prefixes and suffixes attached, so you may have to search the 
dictionary to find the root parts of the word.)

2)  Keep in mind some of the very basic rules of syntax which differ 
from English.  Where we say "I hit him" a Klingon says something more 
like "Him hit I"  (Not strictly correct, but you should get the idea 
that basic word order in a Klingon sentance is somewhat the reverse of 
Emglish.)

3)  If you are working on understanding what someone wrote, send a 
message with your translation and ask if that's right.  There have 
been complaints about people using up "bandwidth" with inappropriate 
messages, but asking about the language is not at all inappropriate - 
that's what the list is for.

4)  Start small and grow with it.  Write a very short sentance.,  
Write something YOU want to say, not a translation of a famous 
phrase.  As a child, we all had to learn to say "I want the apple" 
*long* before we handled "Now is the winter of our disconent made 
glorious summer..."


Now apply those rules to the following and you are on your way!

'Iw poQ yay


'etlhqengwI'  <  My Klingon name, not a word


  
Garrett Michael Hayes
Client/Server Labs; 8601 Dunwoody Place, Suite 332,  Atlanta, GA 30350
[email protected],  http://www.cslinc.com; 770-552-3646 x243 voice, 770-993-4667 fax
(Opinions expressed are my own and may not be those of Client/Server Labs, LLC)

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