tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 14 20:11:53 1996

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Re: KLBC : Bird of Prey

Adrian Luca (Captain Ady) writes:
>I hope the blamings made their effect ! A desertor has no batlh !
>
>Here is my second tlhingan Hol try. Please, Alan, don't blame me if
>something is weird there, but I compiled the stuff from various
>sources ....

I will certainly blame you for the weirdness of your attempts!  You
are groping your way semi-blindly through the language without help
from an official description of the grammar.  Learning by imitation
is perfectly appropriate for a child who cannot understand "formal"
instruction.  But someone who is capable of reading the explanation
of Klingon grammar given in The Klingon Dictionary shouldn't try to
learn that way.  You're doing a lot right, but you are also doing a
lot wrong.  What you're doing wrong is easily corrected, unless you
refuse (for whatever reason) to look at TKD.

*cough*  I'm sorry.  I don't mean this as a personal attack, but it
had to be said, and I'm afraid you were a convenient target at this
moment.  Let's look calmly at what you've written, shall we?

>toQDuj " SuD' " jira'
>{ I am commaning of the B.o.P. " SuD' " }

Hmm.  The apposition (a description followed by a name) is okay, as
far as I can tell according to recent examples.  You have the words
in the correct order, with the object following the verb.  However,
the verb prefix should be {vI-}, indicating the subject "I" and the
object "him/her/it/them".  I'm pretty sure the verb {ra'} shouldn't
be used for this meaning of "command", though.  It is listed in TKD
as "order, command", and I am firmly in the camp that says that the
words should be translated restrictively; that is, the translations
should carry the meaning *common* to the words given in TKD.  Would
you "order" a Bird of Prey?  I don't think so.  A different verb is
probably more appropriate here; perhaps {che'} "rule, run"?  Or the
idea can be rephrased some to say "I am the B.O.P. SuD''s captain":
{toQDuj <SuD'> HoD jIH}.  This is a little ambigous, because a rank
can be used following a person's name.  It can be read as something
like this:  I am the B.O.P.'s "Captain SuD'".

So why *does* the name of the ship have that extra letter tacked on
to the end of it?  I don't know how you intend it to be pronounced.

>ghaH batlhHa'
>{He has no honor / is dishonored }

{batlh} is not a verb; if you say {batlhHa'}, you must be using the
adverb "dishonorably".  An adverb comes at the front of a sentence,
and modifies the sentence's verb.  One can't just "be" dishonorably
(at least I don't think so); one must "do something" dishonorably.

{quv} *is* a verb meaning "be honored".  If you want to translate
"is dishonored", you can use {quvHa'}.  In fact, that single word
all by itself means "he is dishonored", but you can emphasize the
"he" by putting {ghaH} after the verb as the sentence's subject.
{quvHa' ghaH} "*he* is dishonored."

If you want to translate "has no honor" you can use {batlh ghajbe'}.
This means "he does not have honor"; again, you can emphasize "he"
by tacking on {ghaH} as the subject.

>yaS So'wI' Daqeq
>{officer, prepare the cloaking device }

We have canon examples of punctuation; it would be a good idea to
use a comma here to help disambiguate between addressing the officer
and referring to the officer's cloaking device.  This is a command,
not a simple statement; it needs an "imperative" verb prefix.  See
TKD section 4.1.2 for an explanation of imperatives.  I don't think
{qeq} works for this meaning; TKD says "practice, train, prepare".
The associated noun {qeq} is "drill".  The idea of an object being
"prepared" or "ready" is given in Klingon by the verb suffix {-beH}
(see TKD 4.2.2).  Something isn't just "ready"; it must be ready to
"do" something.  The verb {ghuS} is "be prepared, ready (to launch)",
but it's not obviously applicable to a cloaking device.

This could be {yaS, So'wI' yISo'beHmoH} "Officer, make the cloaking
device ready to cloak."

>Well, I gave it a try ............

That's usually better than not trying.  bInIDbe'chugh, bIQaplaHbe'.

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

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