tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 16 06:28:53 1997

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RE: KLBC: taghwI'



On Monday, April 14, 1997 4:34 PM, [email protected] on behalf of Dave 
Whittington wrote:
> tlhIngan Hol ghoj vItagh.

Hi!  I think you already know me; I'm SuStel, the list's Beginners' 
Grammarian.  If you're conversing at a beginner's level, you should put "KLBC" 
in the subject line.  I've done it for you this time.

There's a great little suffix which does what you're trying to do here.  It is 
{-choH}.

tlhIngan Hol vIghojchoH.
I'm starting to learn Klingon.

Klingon does not have infinitives, which seems to be what you were trying to 
do above.

> HIQaHneS!

qaQaHmeH jItoy'.

> <baSqIpwI'> (blacksmith) tlhIngan
> pongwIj,

If you are identifying "baSqIpwI'" with your Klingon name, you need to use the 
"to be" construction in TKD 6.3.

<baSqIpwI'> 'oH tlhIngan pongwIj'e'.

As a side note, the fact that you have to translate it for us indicates that 
{baSqIpwI'} does not necessarily mean "blacksmith" to everyone.  I probably 
wouldn't have gotten it.  Still, your name is up to you, and need not *mean* 
anything.

> lughchugh mu'vam 'ej lajchugh.

Oh, this is part of the previous sentence.  {lughchugh} is fine, but 
{lajchugh} means "if it accepts."  Consider using the Type 5 verb suffix 
{-lu'}:

lajlu'chugh
if one (indefinite subject) accepts it

> maghItlh neHpu' SuStel 'e' vIlegh.

There's that little rule in 6.2.5 which says that you cannot put an aspect 
suffix (Type 7) on the second verb of a sentence-as-object sentence.  You have 
two of those.  The first is *{maghItlh neHpu' SuStel}.  This would have to be 
{maghItlhpu' neH SuStel}.

Actually, the aspect suffix probably isn't too necessary here.  I'd suggest 
dropping it altogether.

maghItlh neH SuStel 'e' vIlegh.

> toH, naDev jIH!

naDev maH!  tlhIngan maH!

> batlh yIjaHjaj.

That's a new one: "May you go with honor."

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97291.0


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