tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Aug 27 10:21:46 1994
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Re: Another Newcomer
Welcome, William. As you can see, I carry the same first name
among terans, though I took the name charghwI' for this list.
("William, the Conqueror", was, of course the inspiration.) I
am also the Beginners' Grammarian, which means that it's my job
here to greet new folks and encourage them to improve their
skills in the use of tlhIngan Hol. You show great promise
already. You've done so much right that I almost hate to point
out those things which appear to be errors, but that also is my
job.
The Beginners' Grammarian is a rotating position. Two others,
trI'Qal and Holtej have already served in that capacity. There
are also two permanent Grammarians, Krankor and ~mark. They
will comment if they see ME miss something or otherwise steer
you wrong.
In the future, if you want to post something specifically for
my response with the focus beign something that beginners may
want to pay special attention to, the subject line would
usually include KLBC, which, depending on who you listen to,
stands for Klingon Language Beginners' Conversation,
Conference, or Club. (Does it really matter?) Anyway...
For the rest of you beginners, there is much good Klingon to be
had here. It would be well worth your time to try to translate
what William has posted here.
> nuqneH. "tlhIngan-Hol *List*"Daq jIchu'mo' jIlIH'egh 'ej SaDel'egh.
majQa'. I wonder if you should even be considered a beginner.
The only error I see here is one that can be argued as correct.
TKD says that with {-'egh}, you MUST use a verb prefix that
indicates no object. While a case might be made for your usage,
since Klingon is similar to English in its treatment of
indirect objects as direct objects (as in "Give me the gun."
Are you giving me or are you giving the gun?), so you are
indicating, "I describe myself to you."
Still, Okrand is very explicit about the prefix requirement in
4.2.1. I think you'd need to say, {tlhIHvaD jIDel'egh}.
> *William* 'oH pongwIj'e' 'ej *Ursinus College*Daq ghojwI' jIH. *Spanish*
> Hol vIHaD. *Latin* Hol *Education* je vIHaD je. Holmey law' vIHaDpu'mo'
> Hol patmey pIm vIleghpu'. tlhIngan Hol Dajqu' 'e' vIQub.
The verb should come first in this last sentence. Your
placement uses it adjectivally. The pronoun {'e'} needs to
represent a complete sentence and a noun described by a verb
used adjectivally is not a sentence. This is the kind of minor
error that is only half a step up from a typo, in that I
suspect you knew better already...
> *Pennsylvania*Daq ghaH *Ursinus College*'e'.
I doubt that a college would be considered a being capable of
using language. The pronoun {'oH} would be a better choice.
> DuSaQ mach (1,200
> ghojwI'pu') 'ach 'IHqu'. Holmey paqmey yupma'mey HIq je vItIv. toH DaH
> jImev. vay' HItlhob jIDaj 'e' Qubchugh.
You jump between 2nd person and 3rd person in that last
sentence, referring to the same person. It would be better to
say either, {jIDaj 'e' DaQubchugh vaj HItlhob.} or {jIDaj 'e'
Qubchugh jay' vaj mutlhob nuvvam vIneH.} There are those who
would argue that the {vaj} is unnecessary in both examples.
Fine. Humans notoriously love to debate.
> "tlhIngan-Hol *List*"Daq
> jIHtaHbogh jIQuch.
I can understand this, but it is a rather unusual construction.
"I, who am on the Klingon language list, am happy." I would
have expected something more like {"tlhIngan-Hol *List*"Daq
jIHtaHmo' jIQuch.}
> William
Welcome aboard. I will enjoy conversations with you in Klingon
at a later time, when there is nothing about "Beginner" in the
header. For now, I wish to avoid being obscure to the other
beginners.
charghwI'