tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 29 03:12:41 1996

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Re: First attempt

[email protected] wrote:
> 
> Ok this will be my first attempt at writing something in tlhIngan-hol.
> Since I will be part of the Klingon Marine Forces, I was thinking I
> would try, and translate the Rifleman's creed, one sentance at a time..
> Here go's nothing; beHwIjvam oH,(This is my rifle), was I even close?
Very close.  You missed the glottal stop at the beginning of the {'oH},
and the sentence itself, while grammatical, is not quite equivalent to
the English you gave.  What you have would be better rendered in English
as "It is this rifle of mine" - you have the "this" and "my rifle" on
the same side of the verb.   For "This is my rifle", I would use {beHwIj
'oH Dochvam'e'}, which we would usually translate back into English as
exactly "This is my rifle", but which is more literally "As for this
thing, it is my rifle."

In future, you should use the letters KLBC in the subject to have the
Beginner's Grammarian correct your posts (although the BG seems to be
AWOL of late).

> 
> Qaw'nuq
> 
> New name, what do you think? 
As a name, it's just fine - just don't go trying to use it as a Klingon
word in a sentence. :)

> and is it pronounced KawNOOK, or have I
> messed this up also?
I'm not sure how to pronounce "KawNOOK", so I can't answer that
directly.  The first syllable rhymes with "cow" (not "law"), and the
second rhymes with "kook" (not "book").  I would render the whole thing
as "COW-nuke" (assuming that your pronunciation of "nuke" doesn't
include the "y" part of the English long U sound).   But that's still
not right for the consonants.   The 'Q' sound is much harsher than an
English /k/; try to choke yourself with your tongue and rasp, and you'll
be closer.  Also be sure to clip the "ow" sound off cleanly for the
glottal stop.  And the 'q' sound is a less-harsh version of the 'Q' -
just try to choke yourself with your tongue, but leave off the rasping.
:)

The best way to learn the pronunciation of the sounds is, of course, to
pick up the audio tapes - _Conversational_Klingon_ has a section where
Okrand goes through the whole Klingon alphabet and pronounces each
sound.
 
-marqoS

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