tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 24 22:58:11 1994

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Re: typical constructs

According to Katrin Erk:
> 
> That's exactly what I'm looking for: What kind of language
> constructions you have to think in in Klingon. That bit about purpose
> clauses and causals seems very interesting to me.
> What do you do with thoughts which in English would require
> complicated sentences, relative clauses over several lines etc.? Do
> you just break the sentence up? Which verb or noun suffixes do you use
> most often? Which other constructions do you use frequently?

TKD 6.2.5, page 65 "What is a single sentence in English is
often two sentences in Klingon..." While in this instance,
Okrand was specifically referring to the use of the Sentence As
Object construct (very useful and worthy of attention for a
talented beginning Klingonist), in general, you should consider
that it is less important to protect the sentence boundary of a
statement in a different language while translating to Klingon
than it is to produce a collection of Klingon words that will
convey approximately the same meaning as the original statement.

I will note that I am repeatedly amused by the tendency of
people who admit fully that they can't say a damned thing in
Klingon and then immediately rush to focus on how to say the
most complex things they can possibly imagine using the
language. Forget learning vocabulary. That takes too much time.
Forget learning how to actually SAY anything in Klingon. Let's
instead study the most esoteric exercises exploring most
specifically any weakness in the language we think we may have
discovered.

When you were learning your first language, what did you learn
to say first? Why is it that a new language should get
different treatment? Why is it that you think that you will be
able to effectively convey convoluted constructions if you
can't even comfortably convey a simple thought through the
language? How do you expect to explore the most effective way
to express the complex without building all those synapses
related to speaking well the simple things most naturally
suited to the language?

> btw., I tried to read a Shakespearean sonnet in Klingon and found it
> extremely difficult. The relative clause suffix -bogh appeared very
> often - what kinds of strange purposes can you use that for?
> 
> thanks a lot,
> 	Katrin

Ahh. You are probably reading something translated by Nick
Nicholous. He is amazing in his ability to create very poetic
Klingon works that magically match the meter of the original
works, though many skilled Klingon speakers find these works to
be somewhat impenetrable. They are quite worthy of study,
though probably not the most appopriate works for most
beginners. Would you suggest that a beginning student of the
German language start off directly reading Kant?

charghwI'

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