tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Mar 30 09:47:12 1996
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Re: KLBC: van & more
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC: van & more
- Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 12:49:19 -0500
"C4" writes:
>qa'vanqu' tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'pu'
>{I'm just beginning to learn} the Hol, so that's about all
>I can muster right now.
Not bad for a start, but it still has a problem or two. First, the
verb prefix is misspelled -- all prefixes end with a vowel. Second,
You're addressing "speakers", which is plural, but your verb prefix
says the object is "you (singular)". You need to say {Savanqu'} if
you're saluting "you (plural)". Why did you choose to add the verb
suffix {-qu'}? I get a mental image of a soldier saluting so hard
he adds another wrinkle to his forehead...
>In order to expedite the learning process, I have
>compiled the dictionary into a database. (still
>have a little trouble with grammar, though.)
The grammar is the important part. Computerized translators can't
yet do a good job of understanding complete sentences, so that's the
part of the language we absolutely need to learn. Translating words
is relatively easy, and automatically gets easier, but understanding
grammar takes real practice with appropriate feedback.
>...(Uh, could a helpful grammarian translate
>the above in brackets? i.e. how do you
>say you're "(verb)ing to (verb)"?)
That depends entirely on what the first verb is. In this case, the
sentence "I'm just beginning to learn" lends itself to the use of a
verb suffix rather than another verb. See TKD section 4.2.3 for an
explanation of the suffix {-choH} "change". For this sentence, you
might say {jIghojchoH} "I begin to learn," or perhaps you could say
{jIghojchoHlI'} "I am in the process of beginning to learn."
Other phrases would be translated using entirely different grammar.
For example, "He is trying to sleep" could be {Qong 'e' nID}, literally
"He tries that he sleeps." The sentence "You are waiting to leave"
might be {bImej 'e' DaloS} (approximately "You wait for you to leave")
or {bImejmeH bIloS} ("You wait in order that you leave"), depending on
the shade of meaning desired.
>wejloch wej wa' nItlhDu'
> ghajlaH loD
>'ej joHDajvaD wej nob
>'ach tIqDajDaq batlh ghajbe'chug
>SuvwI' mojlaHbe'
>
> -Klingon Proverb
Where did you find this proverb? I don't recognize it, and I can't
quite read through the typo(s) in the first line.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj