tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 28 18:15:55 1996
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Re: KLBC: jIyaj
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC: jIyaj
- Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 20:20:18 -0500
qeq writes:
>I just bought a TKD and now want to try to makes some sentences tell e if
>theses are right please:
{qalobqangqu'.} I'm happy to comply.
>jIchamwI' De'wI
>i am a computer technician
When saying something like this, Klingon uses pronouns as "to be" verbs.
(see TKD 6.3). {chamwI'} is a noun, and cannot take verb prefixes. To
say "computer technician" one puts the words in the same order as english
does: {De'wI' chamwI'}, literally "computer's technician". Fixing it all:
{De'wI' chamwI' jIH}.
>tlhingan-hol jIbang
>I love the Klingon language
Red alert! {bang} "loved one" is a *noun*. It cannot be used this way.
Some people use {muSHa'} "mis-hate" for this meaning.
>megh ghorgh
>when's lunch
Question words like {ghorgh} usually come at the beginning of the sentence.
{ghorgh megh} might be understood as "clipped" Klingon, but it isn't a
complete sentence. It needs a verb in order to be grammatically correct:
{ghorgh megh wISop?} "When do we eat lunch?"
{ghorgh qaS megh} "When does lunch happen?"
>mang vImojpu'
>I became a soldier
This triggers my "tense vs. aspect" alarm.
Your sentence literally says "I have become a soldier" -- or "I had become
a soldier" or "I will have become a soldier." Klingon doesn't mark verbs
to indicate tense (past, present, future). Whether {jISop} means "I eat"
or "I ate" or "I will eat" depends on other contextual clues. Often the
specific time that something did/does/will happen is used: {wa'leS jISop}
"I will eat tomorrow" or {Sochvatlh rep jISop} "I ate at seven o'clock."
The type 7 verb suffixes have nothing to do with tense. They indicate the
"aspect" of the action, whether it is complete, or whether it is continuous.
{jISoppu'} says nothing about whether I already ate or not, it merely talks
about the completed act of eating. The eating might be completed last year,
or today, or next week. Read TKD section 4.2.7 closely.
>beHwIj
>my rifle
Yes, this is an accurate translation of the word. What do you want to do
with it? :-)
>These are just a few attempts at sentences. I hope they are partly right at
>least soon hopefully I will be good at writting tlhingan-hol.
These are good simple attempts (except the last attempt isn't a sentence at
all). But the name of the language is {tlhIngan Hol} -- if you're going to
study it, you should spell it correctly. "tlhingan-hol" is the name of the
*mailing list*, not the language.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj