tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 28 22:20:16 1998
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Re: KLBC: More sentences
Peter Schuller writes:
>I've got some more sentences on which I'd like some feedback.
>I hope it's okey to post sentences like this, tell me if it's
>to much of a hassle.
Reading and commenting on sentences like this is one of the jobs of the
list's Beginners' Grammarian. Of *course* it's a hassle, but it's one
for which the BG has volunteered. :-) As it's been a little over a week
since these were posted, I'm going to step in and give some comments of
my own before I forget what I want to say. Qov, vIboQ 'e' yIlajneS.
>HoD, pIvghormaj QotlhchoH peng
>"Captain, the torpedo knocked out our Warp drive."
Your sentence says "The torpedo begins to disable our warp drive."
If you're thinking in past tense, recognize that there's no grammar
in Klingon to indicate past vs. present vs. future. {Qotlh} can be
either "it disabled it," "it disables it," or "it will disable it."
The idea you want to express seems appropriate for the perfective
suffix {-pu'}. The report is concerned with the completion of the
photon's action. {pIvghor Qotlhpu' peng} "The torpedo has disabled
the warp drive." In another context, it might be translated as "The
torpedo will have disabled the warp drive."
>HoD, yoDmey peptaH chaH 'ej baH ghuStaH chaH
>"Captain, they are raising their shields and preparing to fire."
Vocabulary is a pet subject of mine, so I'll address it first. The
word {yoD} refers only to a hand-held piece of metal used by a warrior.
The energy field that protects a ship is not the same word in Klingon;
that is {botjan}. The verb {pep} "raise" seems to mean only to lift
something up physically; the phrase {yoD pep} "raise shield" is okay
for the physical shield, but in Klingon, that idiom doesn't carry over
to activating the force field we call "shields" in Federation Standard.
According to _Klingon for the Galactic Traveler_ page 67, the way to
say this is {botjan chu'} "activate the shields." Note that {botjan}
is a singular word, even though its usual translation is "shields", so
"they activate the shields" becomes {botjan luchu'}.
Your use of {-taH} is okay, but since there's a definite goal associated
with raising the shields and preparing to fire, {-lI'} might be a little
more appropriate.
If you want to say "they are preparing to fire" you should use the type
2 verb suffix {-rup} "ready". {baHrup chaH} "They are ready to fire."
{ghuS} means "be prepared to launch or project (something)" all by
itself. You can't combine verbs the way you tried to do it here.
After applying my vocabulary and grammar suggestions, the sentence becomes:
{HoD, botjan luchu'lI' 'ej ghuSlI'}. I've left off the {chaH} pronouns
because the first one is made unnecessary by the {lu-} prefix, and the
second sentence can be assumed to refer to the same people as the first.
>HoHleghQo'
>"He didn't kill himself"
The "oneself" suffix is spelled {-'egh}. After fixing that error, your
sentence says "He refuses to kill himself." In a statement, {-Qo'} means
refusal. Simple negation is indicated with the suffix {-be'}. It should
be {HoH'eghbe'} "He didn't (or doesn't, or won't) kill himself."
>romuluSngan Duj luHiv *Borg*
>"The Borg are attacking the Romulan ship."
First, a nitpick: Watch your capitalization. {I} is always uppercase.
You've got the Borgs (plural) attacking a Romulan's ship, specifying that
the owner of the ship is a Romulan person (or people). Something like
"Romulan ale" is just {romuluS HIq}, so a Romulan ship is {romuluS Duj}.
There's no need to bring the "inhabitant" idea into it. Your English
sentence says "are attacking", which would probably best be translated
into Klingon as {luHIvtaH}.
{romuluS Duj luHIvtaH *Borg*} (The Borgs are still plural here.)
>(any word for Borg? I've only got TKD, but I imagine
>a word for it has been added since then)
No, there's no "offical" word for the Borg. Sometimes *I* informally
call them {tlhoQ}, but only when the people I'm talking to already know
what I mean.
>nuQanvaD yoDmey DIpoQbe'
>"We don't need any shields to protect us."
The "for" verb suffix you want is the verb suffix {-meH} "in order to".
{-vaD} is a noun suffix meaning "intended for". And again recognize
that {yoD} is a physical handheld shield, not a ship's shields.
{nuQanmeH yoDmey DIpoQbe'} "We don't require shields for protecting us."
>(what about the -niS suffix? How do I use it?
>I found it in the list of suffixes, but I can't
>find an explanation in the rest of the TKD)
First, get that {I} capitalized. :-) Second, see section 4.2.2, page 36.
Some brief examples:
{paq vIlaD} "I read the book."
{paq vIlaDnIS} "I must read the book" or "I need to read the book."
{qalegh} "I see you."
{qaleghnIS} "I have to see you."
-- ghunchu'wI'