tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Mar 24 13:36:34 2006
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Re: complex sentences
Voragh:
>qIvo'rIt toQDuj 'oH tlhIngan wo' Duj pagh'e'. ra' qarghan HoD.
>DujvamDaq tlhIngan nuH tu'lu'bogh pov law' Hoch pov puS 'ej
>DujvamDaq 'op SuvwI' tu'lu'bogh po' law' tlhIngan yo' SuvwI'
>law' po' puS.
>The Imperial Klingon Vessel Pagh is a K'Vort-class Bird-of-Prey
>under the command of Captain Kargan. It has the best weapons and
>some of the finest warriors in the Klingon fleet. (S7)
Shane:
>> Did they have to name it "pagh"?
Actually, that was the name of a "real" ship in TNG "A Matter of
Honor". That was the episode where a special exchange program gave Cdr.
Ryker the opportunity to become the first Federation officer to serve on
board a Klingon ship, the IKS (Imperial Klingon Ship) Pagh, as Captain
Kargan's acting first officer.
>Shane, see if you can figure out the grammar. (Note that the translations
>are colloquial, not literal.)
>
>> And what exactly are you asking me to do? Your task is a bit...
>> general... lol
>>(thank god for mu' HaqwI'... Lookin' all the words up gets annoying. lol)
Parse the sentences as an exercise. I.e. translate each one literally to
understand the role of every word. For example, the first two sentences of
the S7 example above are simple but the 3rd is tricky: There are two
relative clauses, two {law'}/{puS} comparisons, and {law'} "be many" is
used 3 times but in two different ways. mu' HaqwI' will give you the basic
meanings of each word, suffix and prefix but since you don't have TKD you
may need help (just ask). But do try to puzzle out as much as you can on
your own. It helps if you strip off all the modifiers and reduce each
clause to the basic object-verb-subject skeleton, then put everything else
back one word at a time.
We've all done it and it's a good way to learn how to say things a bit more
sophisticated than "I'm a Klingon", "the captain is in his quarters", "buy
or die!", etc.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons