tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 01 23:02:24 1998
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RE: KLBC -is this right?
- From: "Sarah Andeen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC -is this right?
- Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 23:01:09 -0700
- Importance: Normal
lab Jonathan Thomas:
>today i translated my first English phrase into klingon:
>nuqDaq kronos?
>Where is Kronos?
>i need to know if this is right.thanks.
Welcome, Jonathan. I am pagh, the list's current Beginners' Grammarian. It
is my job to help beginners out. Since you marked your message with KLBC, I
assume you know most of the BG spiel, so I will skip it. Here's the answer
to your question:
It is close. First off, in Klingon, Kronos is spelled <Qo'noS>. The word
"Kronos" is just an easier spelling for the feddies, who can't handle the
Klingon Q. For tips on pronouncing some of the more exotic letters in
Klingon, look at the pronunciation section of The Klingon Dictonary, or,
even better, listen to the audio tape Conversational Klingon.
Secondly, the correct, formal way to say "Where is X?" is <nuqDaq 'oH X'e'>,
or <nuqDaq ghaH X'e'> if X is a person. The word in the middle also changes
if the thing is plural. So your sentence would be <nuqDaq 'oH Qo'noS'e'>.
However, Klingons sometimes use a shortened form of speech called "clipped
Klingon" in everyday conversation. We use regular, formal Klingon here on
the list most of the time, but it's good to know about clipped Klingon as
well. Clipped Klingon drops out inessential parts of sentences to express
things even more economically than regular Klingon. In clipped Klingon,
<nuqDaq X> means "Where is X?", so your sentence (with the proper spelling
of <Qo'noS>) would be correct in some contexts, like a casual conversation
or a battle on a Klingon ship.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian.