tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 14 18:13:36 1998
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Re: My first try at tlhIngan Hol KLBC
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: My first try at tlhIngan Hol KLBC
- Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 18:11:02 -0700
At 12:28 98-04-14 -0700, ghon van HI'rIp wrote:
}Thanx Qov (and others!) for the nice and instructive replies to my first
}message!
qaboQ 'e' vItIv.
(How unKlingon, eh?)
}>{ghon van HI'rIp 'oH pongwIj'e'}
}>Literally, "My name, it is gh.v.H."
}>
}Yep, just after I sent the message I found this construction in one of the
}texts I am using.Incidentally, my name in Federation Standard is Ron Van
}Gurp, but it is to be pronounced according to the Klingon spelling.
Good thing you told us. I would never have known.
}>Occupations themselves are hard to explain. Have a look at {tej},
}>{chamwI'}, {vu'}, and {Qul} to see if one of those will help you describe
}>your occupation. "Science officer" gives me the idea you're on a navy
}>research vessel, or something.
}
}What I meant to say was, indeed:"when I work I am a material science
}officer=chemist(because that is what I do for a living)". If {tej} means
}science, does (Hap tej} cover chemistry? If so then I am a "Hap tejWI'". \
}
}jIvumtaHvIS Hap tejwI' jIH
Do you not have the dictionary? {tej} is scientist. {Qul} is research (the
verb).
{Hap tej} could be a physicist or a chemist, I suppose, as could {HoS tej}.
The distinction are fairly arbitrary in physical chemistry. chorgh ben Hap
QeD vIHaD jIH.
}>}*bIl 'elbIrt* loSvaDwI'.
}>
}>You've lost me. "Bill Albert" is pretty clearly a name, but {loS} is either
}>the number "four" or the verb "wait, wait for." Neither makes much sense
}>with a type 5 and a type 4 noun suffix on it. Context sugggests you've
}>misremembered a word and you're going for: {*B.A.* ghaH loDnalwI''e'}?
}
}bIlugh. I have *no* idea what gave me loSvaDwI'. What I meant was
}
}*Bill Albert* ghaH loDnalwI' 'e'.
Watch the ditinction between {'e'} and {-'e'}. I explained it in detail in
a recent KLBC post. The to are UNRELATED except for spelling, and {-'e'} is
the noun suffix. That means write: {*Bill Albert* ghaH loDnalwI''e'}. No
space between the noun and its suffix.
}>}vengHomDaq *Vlaardingen* pongta'bogh mayIntaH.
}>
}>I know you're trying for "we live in a village named Vlaardingen" but
}>Klingon {pong} isn't as athletic as English "name" for this kind of sentence.
}
}So how does one use {pong}? Does it refer to the 'act of naming' something,
}like 'I name this baby so-and-so?' In Dutch we distinguish 'noemen'(the act
}of naming something or someone) and 'heten' (to be called something). In my
}sentence I used {pong} in the latter meaning. Can this meaning be expressed
}in Klingon?
{pong} is a bit of a headache in Klingon. It doesn't mean "be called." It
means "give a name to." But it seems to need two objects: the object nameed
plus the name. You can say: {vengHomvaD V. ponglu'} "One calls this
village V." I'm not ure we have canon for it, though, and it's awkward to
use in other constructions, such as the locative you needed. That's why I
ducked the issue with an alternate construction.
}>}(Back to English)
}>}
}>}I am studying Klingon seriously for a few weeks now, using the texts
}>}downloaded from the KLI's FTP server in conjunction with Dr. Okrand's
}>}Klingon Dictionary.
I thought you were a native speaker of English, despite your name and place
of residence until I saw this. (I'm in correction mode, forgive me if you'd
rather me stick to one language at a time.) English happens to use the
present perfective to express action over a duration that starts in the past
and is still continuing in the present. "I have been studying for a few
weeks." = {qaStaHvIS Hogh puS jIHaD}. Weird, eh?
}>An animal that had seen the skycreature thought to itself [should be
}>jatlh'egh], If I am smart I will eat that food.
}
}Is there a good Klingon word for 'bird'? I can hardly imagine that birds are
}called 'skycreatures' on Qo'noS.
We're still waiting for that one. Maybe {chalDep} is better, as "fish" is
{bIQDep}. Or {puvbogh Ha'DIbaH}. I translated {chalHa'DI'baH}
"skycreature" just to highlight that the word was a creation of the
translator, and not canon.
}>}>'IHghachlI' vIjatlhlaw' 'ach yab vIjatlhbe'bej
}>
}>*{'IHghachlI'} is ironically a great ugliness. In between the release of
}>TKD 2nd edition and some follow-up explanation my Marc Okrand, Klingonists
}>abused {-ghach} terribly. It is used for making nouns out of suffixed
}>verbs, and sounds very odd on a bare verb. {naDHa'ghach} - discommendation.
}>{SuvchoHghach} - the inception of the fight. It should be used fairly rarely.
}
}So if some Klingon 'bomwI'' would use the word "'IHbe'ghach" that would
}bmean something like 'beauty-lessness'?
Yes. Good.
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian