tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 31 14:51:44 1996

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RE: KLBC - Trick or Treat

jatlh K'pach epetaI jubchuQun:

>  SuStel ghitlh...

Careful!  Remember that the subject comes *after* the verb!  And don't forget 
to capitalize your {I}'s!  {ghItlh SuStel}

>  My  tlhIngan Hol is getting a bit baSDoq (rusty) from non use (and I see to
>  fluency level of my Klin brethren has risen considerably), but I would
>  submit the following ...
>
>  nob  nob vaj mojrup! ... Give a gift  or be prepared!
>
>  (Hopefully I have not dishonored myself with poor grammar)
>
>  I felt the  phrase should have a child-like quality and should be as short
>  as possible.  

batlh bInID vaj bIquvHa'be'.
You tried honorably, so you are not dishonored.

I like your feelings on the qualities of the phrase.  I'm trying to imagine 
little Klingon children visiting Earth, and participating in this curious 
custom.  Clipped Klingon certainly works here, and I like the repeated 
syllable you have here.

What is the person supposed to be prepared to do?  TKW (p.77) states that "In 
Klingon it is not customary to say 'to be prepared' without saying what one is 
prepared to do."  You've got the {-rup} suffix on the verb {moj}, which means 
"become."  Become what?  I dont' know what you intended, but personally, I'd 
choose {Hegh} "die."  Perhaps you have another verb which you prefer.

Also, you've used {vaj} "thus," instead of {pagh} "either/or."  And Okrand's 
usage of "choose one or the other" sentences suggests (although it is far from 
certain) that you should word it in the following manner: "if you don't choose 
option one, you choose option two."  An example from Conversation Klingon is 
{bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh} "Buy or die."

>From all of this, purely grammatical Klingon would end up as

{nob Danobbe'chugh vaj bIHegh}
"Give a gift or die."

Although exactly how to clip Klingon is questionable, you might try

{nob nobbe'chugh vaj Hegh}
or even
{nob nobbe'chugh Hegh}.

There are, of course, other permutations of this.

SuStel
Stardate 96834.8

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