tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 22 10:22:37 1998

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Re: tlhutlh

The beginner's grammarian, Qov, should answer this, since you 
say you are a beginner, but since you didn't put "KLBC" in your 
subject header, Qov may miss this one, so I'll step in (and she 
can deal with me later if I have transgressed). Anyway, if she 
also answers, listen to her. She's the BG after all...

I'm a former BG, hence my willingness (and limited license) to 
do this.

On Sat, 21 Feb 1998 14:24:38 -0800 (PST) Engelbert 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I´m new to the list, so traditionally I start with the traditional
> apologies that I might be asking stupid questions or pointing at matters
> that have been exhaustively discussed some weeks ago, etcetera.

Begin your subject header with "KLBC" and Qov will definitely 
get a good answer to you. It stands for "Klingon Language 
Beginners' C" where the "C" has many meanings nobody can agree 
on. "Conference, Club, Corner, Chance-to-be-answered, 
Can't-remember-acronyms", whatever.
 
> A few days ago, I went out for a drink with a friend of mine. The thing
> ended up with a hangover the next day, so I decided: "Too much drinking
> isn´t good for me." I tried to translate this idea in Klingon and came
> upon {jIHvad QaQbe´ tlhutlh}. Not satisfactory however, since it doesn´t
> express the notion "too much", and beside of that, I am using a verb
> {tlhutlh} as a subject, and as far as I know, a subject is always a
> noun. I wonder if it it possible to "nounify" a verb in Klingon as it is
> in English.

There are ways to do this, but generally, if you find yourself 
wanting to nounify a verb, you should stop and reconsider the 
grammatical means you are using to express this thought. This is 
where we get into the juicy stuff: recasting. I'm convinced this 
(and contra dancing) are the reasons I was born. I seem to be 
not all that useful for much else...

Consider your thought. You have drunk too much and you have a 
hangover. Klingon doesn't have a noun for "hangover", but it 
does have a verb for "have a headache", which is a major element 
of a hangover, right? So, how might you say, "When I have drunk 
a lot, I get a headache."

And before you reach for {tlhutlh}, consider that the headache 
does not really come from drinking. It comes from inebriation. 
You can drink water and not get a headache. There's another verb 
meaning "be drunk".

So, as you build this sentence, consider that when you get the 
headach, you are CHANGING your condition from not having a 
headache to having one. There's a suffix for that.

Also, consider that this change is an event that happens WHEN 
(we have a suffix for that, too) you have COMPLETED (we have a 
suffix for that, too) the act of being drunk (the verb to which 
these two suffixes would be added.

Also, realize that for these two verbs, the prefix has to say 
you are the one being drunk and having the headache, and both of 
these verbs are intransitive, so they don't take an object.

So, do you think you have this one down yet? 

> Then I tried {jIHvad QaQbe´ jItlhutlhqu´} to express the idea "much"
> using the rover -qu´. I am still not sure about the grammatical
> correctness, however. Should I use the type 9 suffix -bogh for instance,
> and where do I put it?

Don't go there.

Another way you might cast this is to say something like, "When 
I have been very drunk and I have a headache, I do not enjoy the 
situation, thus, I do not want to be drunk." It might be easier 
to think of that last phrase as, "I do not want that I become 
drunk." It's a bit of a challenge, but this long sentence is 
made of simple parts. It would be a good exercise for you.
 
> --QomwI´

charghwI'

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