tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 22 19:34:05 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: newcomer
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: newcomer
- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 22:35:25 -0500
[email protected] (Dave Levy) writes:
>Hi, everyone!
Hi, Dave! Welcome to the list. Trek fanaticism is not required here
(though it *is* welcome), but we can always use linguistic insights.
You might have seen my recent note to another newcomer, but I'll repeat
myself for the benefit of anyone who wasn't paying attention earlier. :-)
I'm called ghunchu'wI', and I'm the list's current Beginners' Grammarian.
My job is specifically to help people who are beginning to learn to write
and/or speak tlhIngan Hol.
If you want feedback on what you have written, put KLBC (Klingon Language
Beginners' Conference) in the subject line of the message. That tells me
that I should look at the message quickly. I will be ready to assist you
with any questions you have, or to check your grammar, or simply to offer
my opinion on your writing. The KLBC marker also indicates that the rest
of the people on the list ought not to jump in with their comments before
I have had a chance to give my response.
>I have bought the Klingon Dictionary...
That's definitely the place to start. On this list we study the language
as presented by its author, Marc Okrand. We try to make sense of what we
see "on screen" in the context of TKD and a few other works by Okrand:
the audiotapes "Conversational Klingon" and "Power Klingon", a few trading
cards from Skybox, interviews in {HolQeD}, The Journal of the Klingon
Language Institute, and some other miscellany.
>...and the book "Teach Yourself Klingon".
If you want to "speak" as the members of this list do, you should disregard
anything produced by Glen Proechel while you're starting out. While there
is room for disagreement on certain details of the language, he seems to
encourage extremely literal translations, including English colloquialisms,
to the extent that his "dialect" is more of a code for English sentences.
The "dialect" we study is the one published (and authorized) by Paramount,
and we try to honor the spirit of "the Klingon way of thinking" which we
infer from the examples we have.
>Can anybody give me any tips about how best to learn this language?
{jIjanglaHchu'. reH yIqeqtaH! Hoch yIlaD! Hoch yImugh!}
Easy -- practice! Read all the Klingon you see on this list. Translate
everything you can. You will see the grammar in use, and you will begin
to recognize common prefixes and suffixes. You will soon be forced to
recognize common words simply in order to save yourself the trouble of
always looking them up. :-)
When writing Klingon, start small. Use one- or two-word sentences to
begin with. Try to avoid the temptation to translate things others
have written; it's harder to do that well than it is to use your own
words. Tell us about yourself. Describe the events of your day. Let
us know what you like and dislike.
>Thanks, and I look forward to many linguistic discussions on this list.
Thank you for your participation. I hope you do more than simply talk
*about* the Klingon language, though; I hope you become skilled enough
to talk *using* the language!
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj