tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 24 00:30:39 1994
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Re: KLBC: jISuptaH
Guido #1 offered the following to the beginners. I applaud the
contribution. It is substantive enough to be challenging, but
straightforward enough to be handled by the more diligent
beginners.
To the beginners, few things will improve your skills more than
reading something like this. You know the context, which will
help you decypher a lot. I find it far easier to read than
random sentences with no context.
Meanwhile, as Beginners' Grammarian, it is my job to tweak this
where it might be helpful.
> This is intended as a conversation starter for the long quiet KLBC. I'll try
> to use the simplest grammar I can while saying what I want. I'm also writing
> here because I can write whatever I want to talk about from my everyday life.
>
> For clarity's sake:
>
> {SupmoHwI''a'} = "trampoline"
>
>
> DaHjaj pov SupmoHwI''a'Daq jISuptaH
> rut jISupDI' DungDaq jIDIng
> wa'logh jISaqDI' SupmoHwI''a'Daq paw' qIvwIj'e'
This might be a little clearer as:
... paw'chuq qIvDu'wIj
Topicallizing "knees" is okay, but not grammatically needed.
For those confused by that, he just meant to stress the word.
In this way, Klingon does with a syllable what English does
with vocal inflection or written underlines.
> 'ej SIHHa'mo' rIQchoH DubwIj'e'
In TKD 6.2.1 at the bottom of the page, Okrand advises that
when the same noun is the subject of two verbs, a pronoun can
be used for the SECOND of the two sentences. While it is
uncertain that this is a strict limitation, and in this case
one of the two clauses is dependent and so arguably not really
a sentence in its own right, following such a rule, this
segment becomes:
'ej SIHHa'mo' DubwIj rIQchoH 'oH
If nothing else, I think this is a little easier to understand
since you don't have to go through two verbs before finding out
what the subject is. That final pronoun is optional. If you are
concerned about {DubwIj} being misinterpreted as the object of
{rIQchoH}, you can only do that if you interpret {'oy'} to be
transitive, which the definition in TKD doesn't support very
well. Transitivity is another one of those things we need
Okrand to talk about more.
My own suspicion is that Klingon verbs are much like English
verbs in that some are only transitive, some are only
intransitive and others can be either. Okrand just didn't think
to indicate transitivity in his definitions, much as he
neglects to indicate part of speech in all sources of new words
outside of TKD (a pet peeve of mine).
> qaStaHvIS poHHom jItlhuHlaHchu'be'
For anyone confused about the placement of {-be'}, he is
indicating that he can breathe, but not clearly or perfectly.
> SupmoHwI''a'vam ghaj [MattPounds]'e'
> DubwIj vI'oy'be'moHmeH chuch'e' munob [Matt]
Since you are implying that your back already hurts and the ice
is to make it stop hurting, this would also be a good place to
use {-choH}:
DubwIj vI'oy'be'choHmoHmeH...
If, on the other hand, you mean that your back didn't hurt, but
Matt decided to use ice to PREVENT it from hurting, you might
instead go for:
DubwIj vI'oy'be'moHtaHmeH...
> wej HoSchu' DublIj muja' [Matt]
Beginners: Notice here that he is using direct quotation
instead of indirect quotation. "Matt tells me, 'YOUR back...'"
not, "Matt tells me that MY back..." So far as we know, this is
the correct way to handle quotation in Klingon.
> chorgh Hut joq nem HoSchu'choH
Gee. Must have been SOME INJURY. Sounds excruciating. Did you
enjoy it, like a GOOD Klingon?
One small point. This might be more grammatically correct as:
chorgh nem Hut nem joq...
The reason is that {joq} is a conjunction for NOUNS, but
numbers are chuvmey. In English, we can say, "Eight or nine
years" because English constantly allows this kind of shorthand
for "Eight years or nine years". I'm not sure we have license
to do this in Klingon.
> 'ach 'e' vIloSqangbe'
> wa'leS SupmoHwI''a'vetlh vIchargh!
>
>
> ghuy'Do wa'
Thanks for the material. It is a story well told. We all hope
that our brave SuvwI' does not become a SuvwI' in a
wheelchair...
charghwI'