tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Oct 19 20:43:36 2014

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

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

Re: [Tlhingan-hol] [KLBC] My answers for Lesson 1

Robyn Stewart ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Yay! You have taken care, and I think you understand what you learned, but I still have a few things to correct.

(Aside: There is generally a person on the list designated Beginners’ Grammarian (BG), and they have first crack at correcting beginner submissions, so as not to overwhelm or confuse beginners. I _believe_ that position is vacant right now. I am a former BG, so as Sunday nights are slow on the Internet, and you are keen and waiting for a response, I am going to answer this. If there is a current BG, please speak up and forgive me for butting in.)

1) tlhIngan Hol ghoj tera'ngan
The Terran learns the Klingon language.

lugh (it is correct)

2) mu'mey jatlh tlhIngan
The Klingon is talking.

Fair enough. It is literally, “The Klingon speaks words” and that’s not a Klingon idiom.

3) cholegh
You see me.

lugh

4) ghopHomDu' ghaj verenganpu'
Ferengi have small hands.

I’ve always disliked this sentence on the postal course, because the concept embodied by –Hom is not merely small, but of being lesser. It’s more like “Ferengi have tiny hand-like appendages.”  There is another way to say exactly, “small hands.” But your answer is the one that was wanted.

5) choSuch
You visit me.

lugh.

6) jatlhbe' Sajmey
Pets don't speak.

lugh.

7) mu'mey ghaj Holmey
Languages have words.

lugh.

8) bIyIn
You live.

lugh.

9) qaghItlhbe'
I write to you.

You have neglected to translate the very important suffix –be’. Try again.

10) tera'ngan 'oy' Saj
The pet hurt the Terran.

Yours is the answer that is wanted by the course, but the course uses ‘oy’ poorly. The verb ‘oy’ is glossed as “ache, hurt, be sore”, so the sentence should really be tera’ngan ‘oy’moH Saj.

11) I see you.
qalegh

bIlugh.

12) The friend has teeth.
Ho'Du' ghaj jup

lugh.

13) You hit me.
chogIp

Careful. There is no g in tlhIngan Hol. You have misread a q.

14) I accept.
jIlaj

lugh.

15) Humans have big teeth.
Ho''a'Du' ghaj tera'ngan

The same caveat applies to –‘a’ as to –Hom above: a Ho''a' would be a tusk or a fang or something else like a tooth, but more significant.
At the moment there is little distinction between a Terran and  a human, but in the exciting world of Star Trek, many humans are not Terrans and many Terrans are not humans. So as not to offend the aliens who call Earth home or the humans who have never been to Earth and who consider their birth planets to be their homelands, distinguish between Human and tera'ngan. You also did not use a plural suffix on the subect. Plural is optional, making it possible for the word to be translated "Terran" or "Terrans".  It's like saying "The fish had big teeth," in English. Without context you don't know if there was one or many toothy fish. If you wanted a plural subject to be clear, you would need the plural.

16) Words lie.
nep mu'mey

lugh.

17) The thing obeys Ferengi words.
Doch lob verengan mu'mey
?) Should mu'mey come before verengan or after?

verengan mu'mey is correct for "Ferengi words" but you have another more fundamental word order problem in the sentence.

18) The Klingon speaks Klingon.
tlhIngan Hol jatlh tlhIngan

lugh

19) You lie.
bInep

lugh

20) Small papers.
navHommey

I think of these like "slips of paper" or maybe even confetti or ticker tape. 

- Qov


_______________________________________________
Tlhingan-hol mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.kli.org/mailman/listinfo/tlhingan-hol

Back to archive top level