tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 06 21:22:25 1996
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Re: (Geoff)
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: (Geoff)
- Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 23:25:18 -0500
Geoff writes:
> pongWij Geoff jIyIn Troy Michigan tlhIngan Hol jIyajchu'be'
> jIghojqang
Hi there, Geoff. I'm your Friendly Neighborhood Beginners' Grammarian.
I'm called ghunchu'wI', and I'm here to help people like you who are
beginning to learn to write and/or speak tlhIngan Hol.
First things first -- you do have a copy of The Klingon Dictionary, don't
you? Without it, you cannot learn properly. There is an ever-increasing
number of not-quite-authorized vocabulary lists and computerized translator
programs that can help with learning individual words (and also have a real
chance of being enough of a crutch that one never quite does learn them).
But the only real description of Klingon grammar is given in TKD. I will
occasionally quote selected text from TKD, but more often I'll simply point
to the relevant section. Without a copy, you'll be lost.
Second -- the Beginners' Grammarian position came about for several reasons.
The obvious reason is to provide a resource for beginners to get assistance
while they are starting out their studies of the language. Slightly less
obvious, but just as important, is that a single point of first contact will
keep down the number of well-meaning, but perhaps conflicting, offers of
advice from others on the list. If you include the codeword KLBC (Klingon
Language Beginners' Conference) in the subject of a note, I'll know to get
to it quickly (and others will know to leave it alone until *after* I have
answered). (The final reason for the BG job is not relevant to beginners;
it's supposed to be a rotating position which helps not only the beginners
but the BG as well.)
With the introductions out of the way, let me revisit your note and offer
a critique in order to increase your understanding of the language.
>pongWij Geoff
[Watch your spelling -- Klingon {I} is always capitalized, and {w} never is.
It is a minor nit-pick, but the word shapes have to be correct in order for
me -- and others -- to read quickly.]
In order to say "X is Y", Klingon says {Y 'oH X'e'}. Both the pronoun and
the suffix {-'e'} are required (see TKD section 6.3). If you want to say
"Geoff is my name," it comes out {pongwIj 'oH *Geoff*'e'}. Since "Geoff"
is obviously not being spelled with Klingon letters, many people would set
it off with quotation marks or asterisks in order to indicate that one will
not find it listed in the dictionary.
>jIyIn Troy Michigan
The noun suffix {-Daq} indicates location (see TKD section 3.3.5). Since
locatives are neither subjects nor objects, they come at the beginning of
the sentence (see TKD section 6.1). The sentence "I live in Troy" becomes
{*Troy*Daq jIyIn}. Except that {yIn} probably isn't the right meaning. I
would rephrase this to say "I am an inhabitant of Troy": {*Troy* ngan jIH}.
>tlhIngan Hol jIyajchu'be'
The verb prefix {jI-} says the sentence has no object, but you did put one
there. This should instead be {vI-}. Otherwise, this is grammatical, and
means "I imperfectly understand the Klingon language." Remember, the rover
{-be'} applies to whatever it follows.
>jIghojqang
"I am willing to learn." Perfect, both the grammar and the sentiment!
Stick around, and keep up the good work.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj