tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 30 17:35:34 1996

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RE: KLBC: some translations

jatlh Adrian K (HurghwI'):

>  I've been practicing translating some sentences lately to improve my skills
>  here are a few which my friends creatively provided.

Okay.  These are a bit complicated, though.  You may want to consider starting 
with something simpler!

>  "I forgot that I'm pretending that I'm not talking to you."
>  SoHvad jIjatlhbe' jIH 'e' jIHvad jInep 'e' jIlIj.

You got "I'm not talking to you" right (although you mis-capitalized a {D} or 
two).  {SoHvaD jIjatlhbe' jIH}.  Unfortunately, "pretend" is a concept I've 
often had trouble with in Klingon myself.  The answer usually lies in 
recasting the sentence.  I'm not sure if you can use {nep} "lie" in this 
capacity as you have (i.e. with an object), but I'll go with it for now.

The second verb in an {'e'} sentence must always have a prefix which indicates 
a singular, third-person object (see the prefix chart on TKD 33).  Therefore, 
you can't use {jI-}.  {vI-} is the correct prefix to use here.  You've made 
this mistake twice in the above sentence, so I'll correct that here.

SoHvaD jIjatlhbe' jIH SoHvaD 'e' vInep 'e' vIlIj.

You'll notice two other changes I made.  First, I changed the {jIHvaD} to a 
{SoHvaD}.  After all, when you are "pretending," you're usually "lying" to 
someone else, right?  Secondly, I put it before the {'e'}.  {'e'} is a pronoun 
which stands in the object position before a verb.  Since you always put nouns 
with {-vaD} on them before the object (as in {SoHvaD tlhIgnan Hol vIjatlh}, "I 
speak Klingon to you"), you should put it before the {'e'}.

>  "Your face looks like something my dog spit up."
>  qablIj rap vay' SopHa'bogh targhwIj.

You sentence actually reads more like "Something which my targ uneats is the 
same your face."  That was a very good attempt!  I have three suggestions.  
First, you probably want to use the word {rur} "resemble" instead of {rap} "be 
the same."  The things which are the same are probably the subject of {rap}.  
See my "First attempt" post on this.

Secondly, it is difficult to tell whether this is "Something which my targ 
uneats" or "my targ which uneats something."  A rule which is not in TKD, but 
which has been explained by Okrand (in HolQeD, I believe), is that you can put 
the Type 5 noun suffix {-'e'} on the head noun of a relative clause.  It lets 
you mark the noun which is the subject of the main verb.  So, 

{qablIj rur vay''e' SopHa'bogh targhwIj} *must* mean
"Something which my targ uneats resembles your face," and

{qablIj rur vay' SopHa'bogh targhwIj'e'} *must* mean
"My targh, which uneats something, resembles your face."

You obviously meant the first one.

Finally, there is a word for "swallow," {ghup}.  Perhaps you'd rather use the 
word {ghupHa'}.  To me, at least, this more accurately conveys the idea of 
"spitting something up."

qablIj rur vay''e' ghupHa'bogh targhwIj

>  "He is sooo stupid that he cleaned the animals with his tongue."
>  QIpmo' ghaH Ha'dIbaHmey Say'moHmeH jatDaj lu'ghaH.

Pretty good!  You've got a couple of spelling errors (capitalize those {D}'s, 
HurghwI'!  And you wrote {lu'ghaH} instead of {lo' ghaH}.  Also, realize that 
it's not necessary to always specify pronouns like {ghaH}.  You can leave them 
out if we'll understand what you mean.  You can probably leave off the last 
{ghaH}.  And to indicate "sooo stupid," you can use {-qu'}: {QIpqu'mo'}.

QIpqu'mo' ghaH, Ha'DIbaHmey Say'moHmeH jatDaj lo'.

>  "I'm sorry, that's the only one I know."
>  QaS jIH, 'e' neH vISov.

The word {QaS} means "troops"; I don't think that's what you meant.

This is really two sentences in English, and I suggest you make it two 
sentences in Klingon, two.  It's also important that you say what the "one" 
thing is.  Without knowing, I'll pick something for an example: "story" {lut}.

{jItlhIj.  lutvetlh neH vISov.}
"I apologize.  I know only that story."

{neH} is a special word.  When it follows a noun, it means "alone, only," 
while when it follows a verb, it means, "merely, just."

>  I was also wondering if it's possible to use moH on a verb with a direct
>  object, instead of -mo'. How would you do it?

I'm not sure what you mean.  {-moH} works best when used with a direct object. 
 It means, essentially, "<subject> causes <object> to <verb>."  {-mo'} is both 
a noun and a verb suffix, which means "because of."  Can you give me an 
example of the problem?

SuStel
Stardate 96832.3

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