tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 08 10:25:49 1994
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Re: Newcomer to the list & language!
According to Micheal Kelly:
>
>
> Hello all...
>
> Just thought I'd introduce myself... I'm a newcomer to the
> Klingon language and to this mailing list. Just got the dictionary and
> tapes last week and I'm hooked... :) (Which is not necessarily a good
> thing as I've been studying more Klingon than French lately, and I have a
> French exam on Friday... :)
Sounds to me like your priorities make perfect sense. Welcome.
> Anyhow, the name is Mike Kelly, I'm 22 and go to the University of
> Waterloo in Ontario, Canada where I'm in the General Science program. I
> was curious as to the postal language course offered by KLI - what does it
> involve? Should you be at a certain level of proficiency before you take
> the course?
The postal course presumes that you have the dictionary, but
have no Klingon language skills whatsoever before you begin
Lesson 1 and seeks to take you as far as you can be taken over
the span of the courses. David Barron created it and is the
best person to comment on it.
> And finally, I wrote the following in a message to someone today -
> can someone tell me if it is at all correct?
>
> tlhIngan Hol jIjatlh jIghojtaH.
You have two instances of a common error in your prefixes, and
one error in the sentence structure. In Klingon, the prefix
contains a reference to the object, if there is one, whether
there is an explicit noun or not. Examples:
jIjatlh = I speak.
vIjatlh = I speak it.
tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh = I speak Klingon language.
tlhIngan Hol jIjatlh = I'm a human who does not know how to
speak Klingon language. {{:)
As written, your single sentence has two main verbs, which is
not good. What you want is a "sentence as object" construction.
In Klingon, this makes two separate sentences, though for
humans, the two sentences are usually combined. Basically, you
have one sentence, then the second sentence begins with the
pronoun {'e'}. This pronoun represents the entire first
sentence. It also acts as the object of the second main verb.
Your sentence should have been:
tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh 'e' vIghoj.
Notice that you also want {vI-} on the second verb because it
does have an object. Literally, there should probably be a
period after {vIjatlh}, though it is very rare that anybody
does that, and the English translation is, "I learn that I
speak Klingon language." Notice that this sounds a little
strange. That's because this is perhaps not the absolute best
way to say this. Perhaps better:
tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhmeH vIghoj.
"I learn in order that I speak Klingon language."
A simpler approach would be:
tlhIngan Hol vIghoj.
"I learn Klingon language."
The {-taH} you chose to use was probably unnecessary, unless
you want to emphasize that it is an ongoing thing; that you are
constantly in a state of learning...
> Qatlh 'ach vItIvtaH.
"It is difficult, but I continue to enjoy it." Fine.
> chaq bIcheghDI' qaghojmoH.
"Perhaps when you return, I will teach you." Is this what you
wanted to say?
> qech QaQ'a'.
This would probably have been better in reverse order. While
you could interpret it to mean, "Is it a good idea?" in
Klingon, the grammar is more straight forward without needing
the generic "it" (making it sound a little less idiomatically
English-like) if you said:
QaQ'a' qechvam?
"Is this idea good?"
> bIcheghDI' vIlegh jIloSbe'.
Again, you have two main verbs and no grammatical justification
for it. "When you return, I will see it. I do not wait." I'm
not positive what you were going after here. Perhaps you could
explain?
> The suffixes aren't giving me too much trouble, but I think I
> might be having a problem with sentence structure...
For a rank beginner, you are doing quite well. You have a good
foundation and with the experience of gentle nudges here on the
list, you can build on this quickly. Keep at it.
> Qapla'
>
> - Mike
charghwI'
--
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