tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 19 22:13:18 1998
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Ready, aim, fire! (was Re: Klingon Language Clan)
ja' "Mark Brewer" <[email protected]>:
>baHwI DoS <Jeff & Susan> baH!
Ah, something grammatical to consider for a change! :-)
The word choice and word order marks this as an obvious word-for-word
translation of the English phrase "Gunner, target J&S... fire!" But
it completely disregards proper Klingon sentence structure and syntax.
First, a minor correction: {baHwI'} "gunner" is misspelled. The word
is actually the verb {baH} "fire (a torpedo)" with the suffix {-wI'}
"one who does". The consonant {'} in Klingon is a full-fledged letter,
as important as {t} or {q}.
There's also a problem with the vocabulary. {DoS} is a noun meaning
"target". It is the thing you aim for. The proper verb here would be
{puS} "sight (with gunsight)".
The word order is wrong as well. The structure of a Klingon sentence
puts the object before the verb, and the subject comes last. In this
phrase, J&S is/are the object of the sentence, and must precede {puS}.
The word {baHwI'}, used here as direct address, can come either at the
beginning or end; it's not really part of the sentence itself. It is
probably best to put it first, as you are probably trying to get the
attention of the gunner before giving the order.
At this point, we have {baHwI', <J&S> DoS... baH!} The verbs have no
prefixes to identify them as imperatives, but it's probably a valid use
of "clipped Klingon". We do have a couple of exclamations that might
be appropriate here: {SuH}, {Su'}, and {'eH} are used to say that the
speaker is about to give a command. {SuH} is often pronounced as a
prolonged {SSS}, which makes it quite nice when getting ready to say
something that everyone expects to hear. If I ever found myself in a
situation where I had to order a gunner to target something then shoot,
I'd probably phrase it like this:
{baHwI', Su': <J&S> puS. SSS......baH!}
For an "official" example of this scenario, see the scene in Star Trek
III where the Klingon Bird of Prey fires on the USS Grissom.
-- ghunchu'wI'