tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 11 00:30:00 1998

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Re: poH'a'

lab K'ryntes:

majQa', K'ryntes.  tlhIngan Hol Daqel 'ej tlhIngan Hol Dalo' je.  
taghwI' SoHba' 'ej bIQaghpu' 'ach bIyoHbej. nom bIghojbej.

Good for you.  It's most excellent to see a beginner using *and* 
asking about tlhIngan Hol.  
> tlhingan jIghItlh 'ej poH'a' mutlhap. 
> ghojmoHpu', Dutlhap poH 'ar'a'?

I understand, because I speak English, that you want to say:

"I'm writing Klingon and it takes me a lot of time.  Teachers, how 
much time does it take you?"

Let me help you get it in a form where our hypothetical non-English 
speaking Klingon could understand it.

{tlhIngan} by itself (note the {I}, never "i") refers to a Klingon 
person. To refer to the language you need to include the word {Hol}.

{ghItlh} refers to the process of making marks.  The 
verb for writing that includes the idea of thinking what to say and 
the right words to say it with is {qon}.  You had no way of knowing 
that with just the dictionary, but Marc Okrand has explained it.

It seems you know about prefixes but didnt choose the right one here. 
When you compose something, that something is the object of the verb 
so a prefix designating an object must be used.  {vI-} not {jI-} to 
say "I compose [it]."

{poH'a'} refers to not so much a large period of ordinary time, but 
something greater than time.  Simply "a lot of time" would be {poH tIn}.
Someone is going to follow up and insist that this should be {poH law'} but
{poH} is a "period of time" and it's not a lot of them, but one big one that
your efforts demand.  So I think I'm right.

While {mutlhap} does literally translate to "it takes me," it 
literally means that something takes you, as in picks you up, or 
or grabs you by the arm and hauls you off.  In English when we say 
"it takes me a lot of time" that is an idiom, just like "raining cats 
and dogs" that makes sense to people who know the language, but is 
nonsense in translation.

You are addressing multiple ghojmoHwI'pu', so even if {Dutlhap} 
didn't have the same idiom problem as {mutlhap} you'd have a prefix 
problem.  {Du-} only refers to one person.  Remember that Klingon 
distinguishes between plural and singular "you."

It's not appropriate to use {-'a'} and a question word like {'ar} at 
the same time.  Either put {-'a'} on the verb to make a statement 
into a yes/no question, or use a question word, not both.

Now I've torn your sentence apart, let me reassemble it, with one 
trick that II'll explain, first.

The type 9 verb (V9) suffix {-meH} indicates that the clause whose 
verb it is attached to is the purpose or reason for the following 
main clause.  Read about it in section 6.2.4.

{jIpuvmeH telDu' vIpoQ}  
"I need wings in order to fly."

tlhIngan Hol vIqonmeH poH tIn vIpoQ. 
ghojmoHwI'pu', tlhIngan Hol boqonmeH tlhIH, poH 'ar bopoQ?

"In order for me to compose Klingon I require a large amount of time.
Instructors, how much time do YOU require to write Klingon?"

And to answer your question:
tlhIngan Hol vIlo'meH poH 'ar vIpoQ?  jISovbe'.  DIvI' Hol vIlo'meH 
oH 'ar vIpoH?  rut mu'mey qarqu' vInejlI'mo' qaStaHvIS pem naQ pagh 
vIta'.  rut muHIv mu'mey'e'.  nom jIghItlhbe': po'be' nItlhDu'wIj.  
jIQubtaHvIS poH law' law' jIghItlhtaHvIS poH law' puS. pItlh.

That took me 2 minutes and 55 seconds, including staring at the wall 
trying to think of what to say.

How much time does it take me to use Klingon?  I don't know. How much 
time does it take me to use English?  Sometimes I accomplish nothing 
all day because I am searching for the right words.  Sometimes the 
words attack me.  I don't write fast: my fingers are not skilled.  I 
spend more time thinking than actually making marks on the page.  The 
end.

That took me 2 minutes and 15 seconds to translate from the Klingon.

I think the answer will be that it takes you as much time to type 
something in any particular language as it does to form the correct 
thoughts and to put them down.  Certainly if you have to look up 
words and check to make sure you have the grammar right it will take 
longer, but you can overcome that barrier until the limiting factor 
is your typing speed and thinking of what to say.

That took 1 minute 35 seconds.  I'm not sure it's fair to say it 
takes me twice as long to say something in Klingon as in English, but 
that was almost the case on that trial. 

You'll improve with time. Memorizing vocabulary and practicing 
getting your ideas in Klingon order helps.

- Qov.

P.S. I have a bad habit of answering my mail backwards.  I am 
responding to your other mail, K'ryntes.

Qov     [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian

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