This unit introduces a number of Klingon animals and also practices the -Du' plural suffix for body parts and the -mey plural suffix for animals and other things that are not body parts and are not beings capable of using language. This unit also introduces possessive suffixes.

Possessive suffixes

Remember that to specify a person or thing that possesses another person or thing, the two nouns (or noun phrases) are simply presented next to each other with the first noun (or noun phrase) indicating the possessor and the second noun (or noun phrase) indicating the possession being talked about:

HoD Duj the captain's ship
tlhIngan SoS the Klingon's mother

When you don't want to list the specific possessor, but just want to refer to them, English would use a possessive pronoun, such as my, your, his, their etc. In Klingon these relationships are marked with type 4 noun suffixes.

Klingon distinguishes, in its posessive suffixes, between possessions which are beings capable of using languages (those which have their plural in -pu' and use pronouns ghaH and chaH) from all other possessions (those which have their plural in -mey or -Du' and use pronouns 'oH and bIH).

If the possession is not a being or not capable of using language, such as an inanimate object, an animal, a body part, etc., then the following possessive suffixes are used:

-wIj my
-lIj your (belonging to one person)
-Daj his, her, its
-maj our
-raj your (belonging to several people)
-chaj their

If the possession is a being capable of using language (e.g. SoSwI' my mother), some, but not all, of those endings end in a glottal stop ' instead of a j — e.g. -lI' instead of -lIj. Those Endings are taught later, under "Talk about Family".

Since you have now learned many of the possessive suffixes, remember that the possessive suffixes are not generally used with area nouns. In ta' Hol (the main dialect of Klingon as spoken in the First City on Qo'noS) we don't say *tlhopwIjDaq or *'emlIjDaq (though speakers from Sakrej region would say it that way) — instead ta' Hol speakers would use pronouns and say, jIH tlhopDaq in front of me and SoH 'emDaq behind you.

Note that the suffixes -vam this/these and -vetlh that/those, which you have previously learned, are also Type 4 noun suffixes and so you cannot use them along with a possessive suffix.  You must either use a relative marker or a possessive marker and you cannot use both on the same noun.

Animals

We have Klingon words for a lot of Klingon animals and a lot of Earth animals.  Some Klingon animals are very similar to some Earth animals and when those words are used to refer to earth animals, the word tera' should really be used in front of the word – if you are going to use the word Sargh to refer to a horse you should really call it tera' Sargh Earth sark. This course ignores that advice and will often translate these Klingon words with the English word for the similar Earth animal.  If you want to know more about the Klingon animals that do not have Earth equivalents, you might try looking up information about them online – many of them are described in Star Trek novels.

Some Klingon animals without Earth equivalents: DenIb Qatlh Denebian slime devil, mIl'oD sabre bear, QIncha' krencha, tlhonghaD klongat, yIH tribble

Even though the saber bear does not exactly resemble Earth bears, many speakers will use the phrase tera' mIl'oD to refer to Earth bears.

Some other Klingon animals with Earth equivalents: bo'Degh bird, ghotI' fish, jentu' penguin, ngavyaw' wolf-like canine, norgh norg/shark, qovIj small canine/dog, Sargh sark/horse, toQ bird of prey, vetlh cockroach, vIghro' v'gro/cat

bo'Degh, ghotI' and toQ are general words and do not refer to specific animals, so can be used to refer to Earth animals without needing the word tera'.

This unit does not introduce any Earth animals without Klingon equivalents, but here are some so you can see how the names get transliterated: baDjer badger, jeghwar jaguar, jIrev giraffe, layyan lion, panDa' panda, qenggharu' kangaroo, taygher tiger, 'e'levan elephant

Preview of -bogh

You will see the -bogh relative-clause verb suffix used in this unit. It is used here to mean, (thing) that (does) as in puvlaHbogh qoq a robot that can fly. For now memorize these words as a unit and the specifics of how to use the suffix will be taught in detail later on.

Vocabulary

ghotI' – fish (general category) (n)

norgh – shark (Klingon norg) (n)

naS – be vicious (v)

bo'Degh – bird (general category) (n)

puv – fly (v)

mIl'oD – sabre bear (Klingon animal) (n)

'op – some (n)

jentu' – penguin (Klingon animal) (n)

DenIb Qatlh – Denebian slime devil (Klingon animal) (n)

yIH – tribble (Klingon animal) (n)

Saj – pet (n)

QaQ – be good (v)

-lIj – your (single you) (noun type 4 suffix)

-wIj – my (noun type 4 suffix)

ghew – bug (n)

'up – be disgusting (v)

vetlh – cockroach (Klingon version) (n)

gho' – step on (v)

tlhuQ – tail (n)

QIncha' – krencha (Klingon reptilian animal) (n)

pach – claw (n)

wej – three (num)

-raj – your (plural you) (noun type 4 suffix)

tel – wing (n)

laq – flap (subject is the thing moving) (v)

laqmoH – flap (subject causes the object to move) (v)

gham – limb (of an animal) (n)

Surgh – skin (v)

-Du' – plural (body part) (noun type 2 suffix)

namwech – paw (n)