tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 20 19:47:13 1996
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Re: KLBC: QonoS
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC: QonoS
- Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 21:49:50 -0500
ghItlh toQDoq:
>QonoS May cha'vethDIch, wa'SaD Hutvatlh HutnaH jav {1}.
>{1} I was trying to get a correct way to write 1996.
On the Skybox cards, Okrand wrote {tera' DIS wa'-Hut-Hut-loS}, with no
number suffixes used at all. The year's identifier is apparently more
of a simple label than a true count of which year it is.
>...I didn't think ninteen nintey six could be written in Klingon...
In Conversational Klingon, we hear that the time of day is referred to
in much this way. "2:30 pm" becomes {wa'maH loSvatlh wejmaH rep}, or
"fourteen hundred thirty hours", like familiar military time.
>Is there also a word for the human month of May?
"May" is a name. There might be a Klingon *spelling* of it, but there is
no strictly Klingon *word* that is equivalent. If you don't like to use
Terran terms, you can refer to {tera' jav vagh}.
> jIghItlh QonoSvan vajvetlh luq moj pov tlhIngan HollI'.
"I write; that warrior of [this?] log; I will; it becomes; your
[speech-using] Klingon language is excellent." Huh?
This is the one line of your note that didn't have a footnote, and it's
the one I can't figure out. What did you want to say here?
>jatlhwI' ghItlhwI'chu {2} letlaw', 'ach pupchol vumbejmo'!
"It is apparently hard/firm speaker and write[perfectly]er,
but he [begins to?] be perfect because he certainly toils."
>{2} I wanted to add wI' on the end of 'speak' and 'write' to try to achieve
>'speaking' and 'writing', but I think this may turn out to be 'speaker' and
>'writer' instead, just like baHwI' means "gunner" instead of "gunning". I
>hope the point I wish to make in that line is given as correct as possible.
If you wanted to say "Speaking and writing are hard", you need to recognize
that "speaking and writing" is the subject and must follow the verb. You've
used {let} "be hard (like a rock)"; I think you wanted {Qatlh} "be difficult"
instead. You also need to use a conjunction like {je} (see TKD 5.3).
Indeed, {jatlhwI'} means "speaker". If you really *must* say "speaking" as
a noun, you can say {jatlhtaHghach}. See TKD's addendum section 4.2.9 for an
explanation of how {-ghach} "nominalizes" verbs. But don't go overboard in
using it -- Klingon is at its best when the verbs are used as verbs! For
example: {Qatlhlaw' jatlhmeH Qu'} "The task in order to speak is difficult."
When {-wI'} and {-ghach} are used to form nouns from verbs, any verb suffixes
used must go before them. They *are* Type 9 suffixes, after all.
>jIHech tlhIngan Hol ghojDI' DuH. QonoSwIj reH Dunna' {3} Qu'vamvaD.
"I intend, as soon as the possibility learns the Klingon language.
Always is [definite?] great my log for the benefit of this task."
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Without knowing what you wanted to
say, I can't really help sort this out. But I can repeat some of the
basic word-order rules: objects come before verbs, and subjects come
after verbs; adverbs almost always come at the beginning of a sentence
(except for {je} and {neH} and in specific cases where the object is
topicalized using {-'e'}), and nouns that aren't subjects or objects
come before objects.
>{3} I am pretty damn sure that word is wrong. When translated it means
>"definately great" or a great role in other words.
Yes, it is wrong. {Dun} is a verb; {-na'} is a *noun* suffix. Try either
of the verb suffixes {-bej} "certainly" or {-chu'} "perfectly".
>toQDoq {4}
>{4} The name I take. It is as close as Redhawk as I am going to get :)
I'm glad you like it.
>Thanks to the person who made k3.exe program on the ftp site.
Try not to rely on computerized translators too much. They are useful for
quickly looking up seldom-used words, but I have yet to encounter one that
could do even a rudimentary job of putting together words in the appropriate
order.
>I would wish to use Kview and tlh2piq.exe, but I don't know what they do.
I believe Kview is a Windows word processor with Klingon menus and window
titles. tlh2piq takes the Klingon spelling we use and turns it into a form
suitable for use with the pIqaD fonts available from the KLI.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj