tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 10 13:07:53 2003

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tagh'a jIlIH'egh

Philip Newton ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

tera'ngan jIH. Philip 'oH pongwIj'e'. tlhIngan Hol vIghojtaH. (jatlh
'ISqu': «tlhIngan Hol DaghojtaHbe'; DaghojlI'». loQ jIQoch.)

'op wen QonoSDajDaq qon Sean M. Burke. ngugh tlhIngan Hol QInmey
tetlhmo' qon. Daj Holmey 'e' vIHarmo', QInmey tetlh vImuv.

jImuvDI', qaStaHvIS 'op jaj QInmey vIlaD 'e' vInID. ghIq jIlaDbe'choH.

qaSDI' 'op jar jIlaDqa'. Daj tlhIngan Hol 'e' vIQubqa'. tlhIngan Hol
mu'ghom, «qIb lengwI' tlhIngan Hol» je vIje'. 'ach not tetlhvaD QIn
vIlI'qang.

chu'qu'wI' jIH vIneHbe'. 'op mu'mey vIghojta' vIneH.

ngugh tlhIngan Hol pong vIwIv vIneH. potlh tlhIngan Hol pong 'e'
vIHar. pong qab vIwIvbe' vIneH. qaStaHvIS 'op jar vIloS 'ej jIlI'be'.
jIlaDtaH.

qaSDI' wa' jaj, QIn lI' Quvar. qepHom Del ghaH. Daj qepHom 'e' vIHar.

QuvarvaD QIn vIlI'. «qepHom vIghoS vIneH» ghaHvaD jIjatlh.

qaStaHvIS qepHom qaS tlhIngan Hol laH qaD 'e' vIlaDDI', qaD vIjeS
vIneH. mu' puS vISovmo', jIqeqchoH. pIj KLIFLASH vIlo' 'ej mu' law'
vIghojta'.

tagha' qepHom vIghoS. pa' jatlhtaHvIS tlhIngan Hol lulo' 'op nuvpu'
'e' vIlegh 'ej loQ mumer wanI'. ghItlhbe' nuvpu'vam 'ach jatlh!

jIHvaD jatlhtaHvIS 'ISqu' nI'taQ je, motlh chaH vIyaj 'e' vItu'. loQ
vImerqa'lu'. «mu'mey yap vISovlaw'» vIQub. pIjHa' jIHvaD mu'
vISovbe'bogh mughnIS chaH.

tlhIngan Hol laH qaD vIjeS vIneH 'e' QoyDI' 'ISqu', mojaq Segh mI'
vIghoj 'e' jIHvaD qeS ghaH. lI'qu'bej qeSvam. qeSmo' ghaH vItlho'qu'.
qeSpa', mojaq HochHom vIyaj 'ach Segh mI' vISovbe'. qaD vIjeStaHvIS,
mojaq Segh mI' vISovnISbej.

laH qaD vIqaDpu'DI', jIQuchqu'. pIj jIjangchu'. jIDo'qu' 'e' vIHonbe'.

qepHom vIjeStaHvIS, mu'mey law' vIghoj 'e' vIHon, 'ach jIqeqbej 'ej
nuvpu' chu' vIqIHbej 'ej jItIvbej. qepHom vIghoSmo' jIbelqu'.

tlhIngan Hol yejHaD tlhIngan Hol QInmey tetlhDaq QIn vIlI' 'e' jIHvaD
chuppu' 'ISqu'. ghu' vIqel.

tlhIngan Hol pong vIghajnISbe' DaH 'e' vIHar. tlhIngan jIHbe';
tera'ngan jIH. 'ej 'op mu'mey vISov 'e' tob tlhIngan Hol laH qaD
vIjeSbogh 'ej vIQapbogh. vaj ghaHvaD jIQochbe' 'ej tetlhvamvaD QIn
vIlI'choH.

mu' Hoch vISovbe'bej. ('op «Qo'noS QonoS» chovnatlh vIlaD 'e'
vInIDDI', mu'mey law' vIyajbe' 'e' vItu'. loQ vItunglu'. 'ach
vItunglu'chu'be'.) jIqeqbe'chugh, mu' vIlIjba'. DaH tlhIngan Hol
vIlaDmeH Qu' Qatlh law' tlhIngan Hol vIghItlhmeH Qu' Qatlh puS'. 'ach
jIghojchoHbej.

laHchajmo' Quvar, nI'taQ, 'ISqu' je vIvuv. mu'mey Hoch Sovlaw'. jIqeq
'e' muneHmoH. Senara vIvuv je. batlh tlhIngan Hol HaD. mu'mey Hoch
Sovbe' 'ach mu'mey law' Sovba'. jatlhvIpbe'ba'. qaStaHvIS qepHom, pIj
tlhIngan Hol jatlh. chaHvaD vIjatlhlaHmo' jIquv.

toH; mu'tleghmey law' vIghItlhpu'. vIghItlhmeH tlhoS wa' rep vIpoQ.



I finally introduce myself.

I'm a Terran; my name is Philip, and I'm learning Klingon. (Or, as
Agnieszka says, "You're not just learning Klingon; you're in the
process of completely learning Klingon." Though I disagree a bit with
that assessment.)

Several months ago, Sean M. Burke wrote an entry in his online journal
and
mentioned the tlhIngan-Hol mailing list. Languages fascinate me, and
so I decided to join the list.

After I joined the list, I read it for several days (or rather, the
English-language parts of it), but then I stopped.

Several months later, my interest in the Klingon language was renewed
by something or other. I started reading the mailing list again; I went
through my backlog of digests at the rate of a couple of days per day,
slowly catching up. I bought TKD and KGT (and, later, CK and TKW on
cassette) over eBay. But all that time, I didn't want to post to the
mailing list.

For one thing, I didn't want to be a complete beginner. I suppose it
was some kind of pride thing; I wanted to have a bunch of words under
my belt.

Also, I wanted a Klingon name. Since the FAQ counsels that you should
be careful in the name you choose since you may be stuck with it for
quite a while, this was no easy decision. I thought about it
occasionally (for example, should it be a name that means something?
An existing Klingon name? A phonetic name based on one of my existing
names? A profession-based name? [but that would be too close to
ghunchu'wI'] etc.) but didn't come to any conclusion. So, for several
months, I waited and didn't send any messages, but I continued to read
on as many days as I had enough spare time. (pojwI' helped me a lot in
this.)

One day, Lieven Litaer sent a message to the mailing list talking
about a qepHom in Germany. I thought that was interesting and resolved
to attend, since it was in my own country and not so far away as
America (which would be quite a bit more expensive). Fortunately,
around that time, I started travelling for my company frequently and
got a discount rail travel card through them, which made the train
journey affordable.

So I sent a message to Lieven telling him that I wanted to attend the
qepHom. At the time I read the announcement, several weeks had already
passed, and the deadline mentioned on the web page was over. But I
thought I'd try my luck anyway. And I was in luck; there were still
places available (partly because the date of the qepHom had been moved
back a couple of weeks and so had the deadline).

Later, I learned from Lieven that they would be offering a KLCP test
during the qepHom. I thought I'd take part in that even though I
thought then that I hadn't the faintest hope of succeeding since my
vocabulary was still very limited. But I started practising, mostly
with KLIFLASH, and I learned quite a few words. (Though the words
KLIFLASH teaches seem to be an eclectic selection; the Beginner stage
certainly does not correspond to the KLCP Level 1 words, offering
things such as Qor/tlhaS/vay/lul/Hargh but not, say, quS [which
doesn't appear until Intermediate level] or waq [which is probably in
Advanced; at any rate, I don't think I've come across it yet].) I also
spent most of the train journey poring over the KLCP Level 1 list of
500 words which I had printed out.

Finally, it was time to go to the qepHom. There, I saw people using
Klingon to talk to one another and was rather surprised. I guess
something went "click" with me when I saw people using Klingon not
simply in email (where you have time to look up words as well as
rearrange your sentences) but in real-time conversation. "Hey," I
thought, "you can actually *use* this language to communicate!"

Agnieszka and Katrin talked to me a fair bit in Klingon, and I usually
understood them; this also surprised me a little. "Hey, I must've
picked up a fair bit of vocabulary," I thought. They occasionally had
to translate a word I didn't know, but on the whole, I got by
surprisingly well.

When she heard that I wanted to participate in the KLCP test,
Agnieszka advised me to learn the suffix type numbers of verb and noun
suffixes. That advice was extremely useful to me during the test. I
knew what pretty much all of them meant but I hadn't paid much
attention to learning the type numbers, which (it turned out) I needed
in about half-a-dozen test questions. I'm very grateful to her for
this advice.

When I had completed the test, I was pretty happy with how it went
out; I had scored pretty well. I had surprised myself and could hardly
believe it. (I still think that there was a lot of luck involved in
the vocabulary used by the questions in the test I took.)

I don't think I learned a lot of new words (let alone new grammar) at
the qepHom, but I certainly had the opportunity to practise speaking
and understanding Klingon, to meet new people, and to have fun. I'm
very glad I was able to make it to the qepHom.

Agnieszka suggested that I participate in the KLI tlhIngan-Hol mailing
list, and I considered.

At the moment, I don't think I need a Klingon name, so that's no
longer preventing me from participating. After all, I'm a Terran, not
a Klingon, so I don't necessarily need a Klingon name. (Maybe if many
Klingons I meet have difficulty pronouncing my name, I'll reconsider.)
And the test I took (and did well in) showed that I do indeed know a
fair number of words. So I agreed and have already sent a couple of
messages.

I certainly don't know all words. (As I noticed when I tried to read
through a couple of issues of «Qo'noS QonoS» and found that I didn't
understand many words, which was a bit discouraging.) And if I don't
practice, I'll undoubtedly forget many of the words I know now.
(Especially true, I assume, for the type of last-minute cramming I did
for the qepHom.) And reading Klingon is still a lot harder than
speaking or writing it myself. But it's a start.

I respect Lieven, Katrin, and Agnieszka for their language ability.
They seem to know every word there is; I kept being astounded. They
made me want to practise more. I also respect Regina; she studies
Klingon with honour. She may not know every word but she certainly
knows a whole lot--and what's more, she's not afraid to use them. She
spoke quite a bit of Klingon during the qepHom. I feel honoured to
have spoken to all of them.

Wow, I've ended up writing quite a lot. It took me about an hour to
write all that (and about half an hour to translate it). For the
record: I wrote this first in Klingon; the English version is a
translation (with some additions as I thought of them).

(To be honest, if someone else had written as much as I have done, I
don't know whether I'd read it. As I said, reading Klingon is still
pretty difficult for me, partly because of vocabulary I may be
unfamiliar with, and partly because segmenting words in order to "look
them up" in my internal dictionary is also not that easy.)

Philip

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