tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Apr 18 14:35:26 1997

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

RE: KLBC: Practicing with questions



On Tuesday, April 15, 1997 1:15 PM, [email protected] on behalf of 
[email protected] wrote:
> 
> I am just starting out so I thought I would try something simple like
> questions, here it goes...

Hello!  I'm SuStel, the list's Beginners' Grammarian.  My job is to help out 
newcomers to the Klingon language.  If you preface your subject line with 
"KLBC," you'll mark your message as "beginner level."  You can ask questions 
under KLBC, or you can just converse at a beginner's level with others.  As 
the rule goes, when it's KLBC, the BG is the first one allowed to respond to 
grammar or vocabulary in the post.  After I get through with it, if anyone has 
anything else to add, or if I made a blunder, feel free to add to it.  
However, there's NEVER any restrictions on conversing with others, as long as 
it's in Klingon!

Two important web pages to see, if you haven't already:

The Klingon Language Institute
http://www.kli.org

This list's FAQ:
http://www.thomtech.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm

Onto your questions!

> Wa'les nuq sop yas
> what will the officer eat tomorrow?

Please remember to capitalize everything correctly.  It may not seem important 
in some cases, but believe me, once you're experienced at it, it's very 
difficult to read incorrectly capitalized Klingon!  Also, sometimes the case 
is crucial: {Q} is a different sound than {q}.  And do not capitalize the 
first letter of a sentence unless the letter is always capitalized.

Oh yes, and don't be afraid to add punctuation.  This isn't really the writing 
system that Klingons use, so there's no reason that we cannot clarify the 
speech as we write it.

Otherwise, this sentence is excellent!

wa'leS nuq Sop yaS?

> Wa'les nuqvesWI lihlah yas
> (The officer can introduce which detectitive tomorrow?)

Hmmm . . . I don't see how you mean "detective."  {veSwI'} is a nonsense-word; 
it means "my war (capable of using language)."  How you choose to describe a 
detective is up to you.  There are different sorts of detectives.  Perhaps 
{HeSwI' SamwI'}.  Perhaps {vIt SamwI'}.  How you choose to say it depends on 
what you mean.  Make sure that your context is clear!

There's hot debate as to whether you can say {nuq <noun>} for "which <noun>."  
Personally, I am dead set against it without confirmation by Marc Okrand 
himself.  There's always another, more Klingon way to say it, anyway.  More 
Klingon, because it doesn't require using lots of nouns.  Klingon is a 
language of verbs, use them a lot!

wa'leS HeSwI' SamwI''e' lIHlaHbogh yaS yIgnu'
Identify the criminal locator which the officer can introduce tomorrow.

This is a complex sentence, using a relative clause with {-bogh}.  See TKD 
6.2.3.  I put {-'e'} on {HeSwI' SamwI''e'} to mark it as the "head noun" of 
the clause.

> Iv'puq je'lah yas
> (Whose child can the officer feed?)

Same problem with {nuq} above: there's no evidence that {'Iv} can modify 
nouns.  And be sure to put the {'} in the correct place!  It's {'Iv}, not 
*{Iv'}.  The glottal stop is a distinct sound, and sometimes if you don't 
include it, you've just said something other than what you meant!

When you are asking this question, are you really interested in who the parent 
is?  Probably not.  You just want to identify the child.  Well, then!  Same 
solution as before!

puq'e' je'laHbogh yaS yIngu'!
Identify the child whom the officer can feed!

If you really ARE interested in the child's parents, you can say

puq'e' je'laHbogh yaS QorghtaH 'Iv?
Who takes care of the child whom the officer can feed?

> nuqdaq yInlah yas
> Where can the officer live?

If you fix the spelling, this is correct.

nuqDaq yInlaH yaS?

> ghorgh DaqDuj mapaw mah
> When will we arrive at the castle?

{Duj} is "vessel," not "castle."  There is no Klingon word for "castle" that 
we know of.  Besides, if you want to use the Type 5 noun suffix {-Daq} 
(locative), you have to put it *after* the noun, not before.

Let's see, a castle, depending on whether you're talking about the real-life 
kind or the fairy tale kind, might be described as a {HubmeH qach} "building 
for defending."  There are other ways to describe this sort of thing; that's 
just one.

Otherwise, this is good.

ghorgh HubmeH qachDaq mapaw maH?

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97294.9


Back to archive top level