tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 20 17:27:11 1996

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Re: NuqneH! chu' jIH

[email protected] writes:
>HoD T'mara of USS Adventure here. I don't speak or write tlIngan very well
>so forgive me that I can't write this whole message in tlIngan.

qay'be' -- no problem.  Few are skilled when they first join the list.
But if you're going to be learning the language, you ought at least to
get its name right:  tlhIngan.  The first sound is the "letter" {tlh}.
I hold the post of Beginners' Grammarian at present; that means that I
have the responsibility of answering questions from folks like you who
are just starting to learn tlhIngan Hol.  If you put "KLBC" up in the
subject of a note, I'll know to give it some priority and try to get to
it quickly (and others will know *not* to answer it until I've given a
response).

Speaking of subjects, you made a couple of common blunders on this one.
It's hard to break the habit of capitalizing a sentence's first letter,
but there is no letter {N} in the Klingon alphabet.  The other problem
is a missing verb prefix on {chu'}.  If you want to say "I am new", it
is translated {jIchu'}.  The pronoun {jIH} as the subject is optional;
using it merely emphasizes that *you* are new (as opposed to someone
else).

>I first was
>introduced to the concept of a Klingon language last October when I got a
>birthday message from Dr. Lawrence in tlIngan. I thought it was just
>jibberish until I became interested in speaking it a couple weeks ago. Some
>friends down the block learned Spanish in school and whenever they want to
>say something they don't want me or my brother to hear, they say it in
>Spanish. I wanted a way to communicate with him so that they wouldn't
>understand us. :-)

That runs counter to the reason *I* decided to learn tlhIngan Hol.  I feel
that language is to facilitate communication, not to hinder it.  Of course,
this is a poor argument for my studying Klingon...

>I don't own TKD, I just borrowed it from the library. I am hoping that I can
>find a copy secondhand somewhere so I can have it for reference.

I guess I just don't understand the financial issues.  In the US, for the
cost of four video rentals, three fast-food lunches, two cheap haircuts,
one not-so-cheap haircut, or a half tank of gasoline, one can buy a copy
of TKD.  It is a shame that the only complete description of the grammar
is copyrighted, but that's the way it is; if you're serious enough about
learning the language, you pay for it (or you find a "patron" to pay).

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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