tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 27 17:46:47 1996
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Re: nuqneH! (KaaDaQ')
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: nuqneH! (KaaDaQ')
- Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 20:48:48 -0500
KaaDaQ' writes:
>cheghta' KaaDaQ'!
>(KaaDaQ' has returned!)
majQa'! law'choHtaHvIS jatlhwI'pu', jIbelchoHtaH.
Wonderful! While speakers are becoming many, I am becoming pleased.
Good use of {-ta'} here, by the way!
>juSta' jarmey law' naDev vISuchta'bogh.
>(Many months have passed since I have visited.)
Bad use of {-ta'} *here*, though. Months don't pass on purpose; I'm sure
{-pu'} is more appropriate. Also, {juS} "pass, overtake" probably doesn't
refer to the "passage" of time; for that, we have {qaS} "occur". You have
used the suffix {-bogh} where your translation has "since"; that's not a
good match for the meaning at all, and the relative clause has nowhere to
fit in the sentence. I read this as "many months have (intentionally)
overtaken; here which I have (intentionally) visited." There's no easy
translation for "since", so you'll have to rephrase it. You might say
"While many months were happening, I haven't visited here."
{qaStaHvIS jar law' naDev vISuchta'be'}.
>ghojqanqa'wI' jIH!
>(I am a willing student once again!)
{jI[X]} is equivalent to {[X]wI' jIH}, and the former is usually much more
readable. Try {jIghojqangqa'} "I am again willing to learn." English uses
nouns in so many situations where Klingon really demands a verb. I really
think most of the places where we use "student" should say "learn" when we
say it in Klingon.
>taHjaj SoQmey!
>(May the converstations (speeches) continue!)
Which is it, conversations or lectures? :-) There's a real difference.
>(cholugh lughbe'chugh pabwIj)
>(Correct me if my grammar is wrong)
{lugh} means "be correct". It doesn't mean "to correct", the way you've
tried to use it in your first word. We can get the intended meaning with
the verb suffix {-moH}. You also need to use an "imperative" verb prefix,
because this is a command and not simply a statement of fact. You should
say {HIlughmoH} "cause me to be correct".
There's a word {muj} which means "wrong", but I don't know when it would
be preferred over {lughbe'} "not correct". It's a matter of emphasis, I
guess; your sentence focuses not on wrongness, but a lack of correctness.
>KaaDaQ' (pongwIj, vIghItlhta' lughbe' chIch)
>(It is my name. I wrote it incorrectly on purpose.)
"It is my name" would be {pongwIj 'oH}. There's no "incorrectly" in the
vocabulary; we can't simply use verbs as adverbs like you've tried to do
with {lughbe'}. The verb suffix {-Ha'} might be useful for this meaning;
how about {vIghItlhHa'ta'} "I have miswritten it"? Finally, adverbs such
as {chIch} come at the *beginning* of the sentence.
>Here's what I was trying for so you can correct me if I was wrong:
Thank you ever so much for that courtesy! Your word order is good enough
that I could probably have figured out the meaning well enough to give you
reasonably good pointers, but it's certainly easier to show someone how to
express a meaning when that meaning is known.
>taHjaj boq!
taHjaj maH!
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj