tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 02 17:41:11 1998

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

RE: KLBC: paghvaD pab qab vInob

lab tuv'el:

> KLBC - paghvaD pab qab vInob
> 
> ja' pagh:
> > lab tuv'el:
> 
> > >KLBC - jImugh 'e' jInIDlI' 'a Qatlh
> 
> > Qatlh mu'meywIj rut vIneH. Qatlhchugh vaj yajmeH 
> > taghwI'pu', QubnIS chaH.
> TRANS:  On occasion I want my words to be difficult.  If 
> they are difficult for beginners to understand, then they 
> need to think.

Not quite my literal meaning, but it captures the spirit well.

> > >> maj. This meaning of <SaS> is slang, of course, but if 
> > >> you would use "cool" in normal speech, this is no 
> > >> different.
> 
> > > chong >;-)
> 
> > 'ach SaSbej qabqoqlIj...
> TRANS: but your so-called face is certainly horizontal...
> 
> 'ach chongba' botlh nItlhwIj...  qablIj HI'ang!

jIjangQo' jay'!

> > > peng boghuSmoHlaHpa' jagh vengDaq peng boQeqnIS.
> > > "Before you can ready the missile, you must aim it 
> > > at the enemy's city."
> 
> > As ghunchu'wI' and Voragh noted, I got the meaning of 
> > <ghuS> a bit wrong, which makes your sentence wrong. 
> > The net result is that you can lose the <-moH> and 
> > this sentence will be fine. With that correction, it 
> > is a much better sentence than your first try.
> 
> peng boghuSlaHpa' jagh vengDaq 'oH boQeqnIS.

maj.

> > >SochleS qaHaq 'ej tlhuQlIj vIteq.
> > >"I will operate on you and remove your tail next week."
> 
> > This is fine the way it is, but might be better served by 
> > a <-meH> clause. The English "and" often seems to carry more 
> > meaning than the Klingon <'ej>, which just joins sentences. 
> > In this case, the context makes the purpose of the surgery 
> > clear, but why not use a "purpose" clause to make it explicit.
> > You could use some practice with <-meH> anyway.
> 
> SochleS tlhuQlIj vIteqmeH qaHaq.
> 
> > Here are some additional sentences for practice, all of which 
> > can be translated with a <-meH> clause:
> 
> > I went to the pet store and retrieved my pet.
> Sajmey lungevlu'meH DaqDaq jIjaH 'ej SajwIj vISuq.

You did use a <-meH> clause here, but not where I expected it. The
phrase <ngevlu'meH Daq> - "place for selling" is a very weird way of
saying "store". I was expecting <Suy> - "merchant". It's not literally
the same, since a merchant is a person, but that doesn't make any
difference in this sentence: whether I go to the merchant or to his
store, I end up in the same place.

The other point of this sentence was to get you to use a <-meH> clause
instead of putting two sentences together with <'ej>, and it looks like
I failed. The sentence I was expecting was:

<SajwIj vISuqqa'meH Saj SuyDaq jIjaH>.

Finally, note the <-qa'>. The word "retrieve" implies that I left my pet
at the store, and I had to go get her back. <-qa'> does exactly the same
thing.


> > I had to open her cage to clean it. It was very messy.
> vISay'moHmeH 'oH mo' vIpoSnISmoH.  ghIHqu'.

Remember your OVS: <mo'Daj vISay'moHmeH vIpoSnISmoH.> Since the <'oH> is
optional, I removed it from my version.


> > I was out of rice (tIr), so I went to the store to get more.
> tIr vIHutlh, vaj ngevlu'meH DaqDaq 'op vISuqmeH jIjaH.

As a style note, I would probably have used <tIr vIHutlhmo' ...>, but
yours works fine as well. See the note above about using <Suy> for
merchant - in this case, I would probably go to a food merchant (<Soj
Suy>). What I ended up with is:

<tIr vIHutlh, vaj tIr vIje'meH Soj SuyDaq jIjaH>.

We don't really have a way in Klingon to say "more", at least the way it
is used in this sentence. Since "more" is really just a stand in for
whatever it is we want more of, I just used the original thing. I also
threw <je'> in there for some variety in vocabulary.


> tlhInganpu' Hol bIjqa'taH tuv'el:
> 
> mojaq <-meH> mIgh law' Hoch mojaqmey mIgh puS.
> "The suffix <-meH> is the most evil of all the suffixes."

chay' mIghlaH mojaq? <-meH> is one of the harder suffixes to use, but it
is also quite useful when you have mastered it. (lughba' mu'tlheghlIj).

> ru'Ha'mo' Ha'qujwIj Dange'be'.
> "You cannot take away my sash [wound my pride] because it is 
> permanent."

You missed a suffix: <-laH>. Other than that, this is fine.

> qoDDaq qamer'a'?
> "Did I surprise you inside?"

This doesn't make much sense to me. Inside what?

> naHlet vISuqmeH Sormey vItlhIl.
> "I mine trees in order to obtain nuts."

I don't know if <tlhIl> can be used like this, but other than that, this
is good.

> Heghpu'bogh porgh retlhDaq HaqwI' naQ vItu'.
> "I found the surgeon's cane next to the dead body."

maj.

> DaHjaj HurDaq ghomtaH ra'ghomquv.
> "The High Command is meeting outside today."

maj.

> qatlh nulonta' latlhpu'?
> "Why have the others abandoned us?"

maj.

> raghpu' mIr vaj beqpuj rur.
> "The chain has rusted, so it looks like bekpuj."

maj.

> reH pIch Hev Hom.
> "The weakling always gets the blame."

This is fine, but I have an alternative suggestion: <reH Hom pIchlu'>.


I'm worn out from answering KLBC's now, but I'll post some more
exercises for you to abuse <-meH> clauses in tomorrow.

pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

Back to archive top level