tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 04 08:28:43 1995
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Re: KLBC
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC
- Date: Wed, 4 Jan 95 11:28:40 EST
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Laurel Beckley" at Jan 3, 95 8:16 pm
According to Laurel Beckley:
>
> This is my first attempt at a posting; I hope it gets through. I'm
> making my first attempt also at writing in tlhingan Hol. This is real
> Dick and Jane stuff, but my vocabulary isn't too great yet.
This is a great way to start. Welcome.
> cha' Sajmey ghaj jIH.
This is essentially right, in that you got the word order
exactly as it should be. Next, you should work on the prefixes
for the verbs. In this case {vIghaj} would have replaced
{ghaj jIH} and would be grammatically more proper, the result
being:
cha' Sajmey vIghaj.
You then don't need the {jIH} at all, unless you are
emphasizing that it is indeed YOU who have two pets and not
somebody else. Instead of "I have two pets," it would mean,
"*I* have two pets."
Some people would also jump in to say that the
{-mey} is unnecessary because {cha'} already tells you that
{Saj} is plural. In truth, it doesn't matter. The plural suffix
is optional when a noun is clearly plural, as it is in this
case, so you are quite right to use {-mey}, but you should
recognize that if someone ELSE writes a similar sentence
WITHOUT {-mey}, they are not wrong.
Basically, Klingon is less redundent than most languages. Since
the optional nature of the plural suffix in this setting is
somewhat unusual, it may be considered to be more purely
Klingon, so those who want to be MORE Klingon will tend to
militantly refuse to put a plural suffix when its use is
optional. Others will always put the plural suffix because they
consider the result to be more legible. It ultimately becomes a
matter of style.
> Qong. Sop. rut chop. reHchuq. chopchuq.
Cute. Nice job. Context tells us that all these null prefixes
refer to the two pets. You could have also said:
Qong bIH. Sop bIH, etc.
Again, you don't have to because of Klingon's efficiency. In my
own style, I probably would have written your entire post as:
cha' Saj vIghaj. Qong bIH. Sop. rut chop. reHchuq 'ej chopchuq.
I only offer that as one person's style to show the way you can
play around with the words to say the same thing while adding a
little stylistic variety.
> My first attempt. Fire away.
No flame necessary. Nice first try.
> laurel
> [email protected]
charghwI'
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