tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 27 11:09:39 1996
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Re: New Here
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: New Here
- Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 13:12:55 -0500
KATIE MONCELSI writes:
>jIH chu' naDev. vay' bel QIj jIH chay' vum naDev.
[wejpuH. pIj Paramountvo' narghbogh tlhIngan Holqoq rur. Oh, great. This
looks like the excuse for Klingon that often comes out of Paramount.]
If I try to translate this grammatically, I get:
"Hereabouts activates the monitor. It is pleased someone; the monitor
explains; how does here toil?" The lack of verb prefixes means that
{jIH} can't mean "I, me", and {vum} means "work, toil". The word for
"work, function" is {Qap}.
If I instead try to translate each word in isolation, I think it might be:
"I am new here. Somebody please explain to me how it works here." I'll
proceed on the assumption that this second meaning is what you intended.
I'm called ghunchu'wI', and I'm the list's current Beginners' Grammarian.
My job is specifically to help people who are beginning to learn to write
and/or speak tlhIngan Hol.
If you want feedback on what you have written, put KLBC (Klingon Language
Beginners' Conference) in the subject line of the message. That tells me
that I should look at the message quickly. I will be ready to assist you
with any questions you have, or to check your grammar, or simply to offer
my opinion on your writing. The KLBC marker also indicates that the rest
of the people on the list ought not to jump in with their comments before
I have had a chance to give my response.
Do you have a copy of The Klingon Dictionary? You can't learn the language
without a description of its grammar, and TKD is *the* canonical source for
the language. There are many simple vocabulary lists "floating around" on
the Internet, but they don't help with learning how to write sentences.
First of all, you can't just go translating words without regard for the
grammar. Klingon is not simply a code for english (or spanish, or hebrew,
or esperanto...). Only half of The Klingon Dictionary is occupied by the
word list. The other half describes how sentences are put together. One
of the things that defines the Klingon language is its unusual grammar.
Marc Okrand intentionally defined many of its grammatical constructions to
be unlike common (terrestrial) languages.
For instance, the basic Klingon sentence structure is OBJECT-VERB-SUBJECT.
Nouns which aren't objects or subject precede the object. The thing which
is performing the action comes at the *end* of the sentence. Verbs have
prefixes which identify the subject and object as either first, second, or
third person (me, you, him/her/it); and as singular or plural. Read the
complete descriptions in TKD; I don't have the time (or the disposition)
to teach a complete course in Klingon grammar by email.
[The Klingon Language Institute does sponsor a (free!) postal course. If
you want details, ask here or see http://www.kli.org (the KLI web site).]
I'll try to correctly translate into Klingon what I think you meant:
{naDev jIchu'. naDev jIvangmeH mIw yIQIjneS vay'.}
"I am new here. Somebody/anybody, explain (honorific) the procedure for me
to take action here." The honorific verb suffix {-neS} indicates extreme
politeness or deference (see TKD section 4.2.8).
What should you do now? If you haven't yet, read The Klingon Dictionary.
If you have, read it again. Pay particular attention to section 6. When
you think you understand how to put a Klingon sentence together, try some
very simple examples: "The paper is white." "I eat breakfast." Things
like that. When you "get" the basic grammar and you can write things that
others can understand, you can start putting together more complicated ideas
with some hope that they also will be understood.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj