tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 19 11:40:46 1995

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: jImawqu'wI'




Fri, 19 May 1995, ghItlh Soqra'tIS:

> tlhIngan Hol vIghItlhmoHta'. 

This sentence means "I have made the Klingon language write."
nuq DaghItlh 'e' DanID'a'?

> jImawqu'wI'. 

This is not a sentence, it a noun.  It looks as wierd in Klingon as it 
does in English: "one who is I very much offend".  {-wI'} turns verbs 
into nouns.  Verb prefixes indicate the subject and object of a verb.  
Nouns don't have subjects or objects, therefore it makes little sense to 
put verb prefixes on nouns.  You would want to say either {jImawqu'} or 
{mawqu'wI' jIH}. 

> SatlhIjqu'bej jIH vInoblI'. 

This is a run-on sentence:  "I certainly apologize to y'all very much, 
I'm giving it".  This sentence works fine if you leave out {vInoblI'}.

> tlhIngan Hol tlhIH bojatlh boghItlh 'ej law' tlhIngan Hol jIH 
> vIjatlh vIghItlh 'ej puS. 

I think you are trying to say "Y'all read and write Klingon more than I do."
law'/puS constructions are used to compare adjectives.  E.g. I am older 
than you.  (The adjective "old" is what is being compared.)  Klingon  
uses verbs which describe a state or quality as adjectives.  Examples 
of verbs which describe a state or quality are verbs like: {tin} (be 
big), {mach} (be small), {qan} (be old), {Doq} (be red), {Doy'} (be 
tired), {yoH} (be brave), etc.  These types verbs work well in law'/puS 
constructions. 

Transitive verbs, or verbs which can have a subject and an object, like 
{jalth} (speak), {ghItlh} (write), {HoH} (kill), {tlhob} (thank), {Qaw'} 
(destroy) make lousy adjectives and therefore they don't work if you try 
to put them in a law'/puS construction.

The second mistake in your sentence is that {'ej} does not work like {je}.
{'ej} goes between the two sentences which are being joined.

The type of sentence you are trying to make is hard to write in Klingon.  
As yet, we don't have a way to compare adverbs like "more often", "more 
frequently".

I would rephrase your sentence as something like:
pIj tlhIngan Hol boghItlh 'ach pIj tlhIngan Hol vIghItlhlaHbe'. 

> nganpu':
> naDHa'ghachwI' vIghuHqu'rup

Since {naDHa'ghach} is not a being capable of using language, you would 
use {-wIj} instead of {-wI'}.

bItlhIj 'e' wIlaj.  wej pInaDHa'.  tugh tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI' QaQ Damoj.

> Soqra'tIS           [email protected]

yoDtargh



Back to archive top level