tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 08 15:55:59 1997

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KLBC: tlhIngan-Hol vIparHa'qu'!



Firstly, does KLBC stand for "Klingon Language Be Corrected"? Probably 
not, but I can't think what else it could be!

Secondly, I just want to say how grateful I am for this service and 
Qov's advice etc. Aside from being enormously educational and fun, it's 
great to know that I am not the only 'terran' to be interested in 
artificial languages like Klingon. (All my friends reckon I'm nuts, but 
there you go)!  :-) 

Thirdly, I was wondering how long all the grammarians and 
"frequent-thlInagn-Hol-message-submitters" have been learning to speak 
it:
(Is Mark Okrand considered to be the authority on all grammatical 
points, or does anyone on this list speak it better than he does - if 
indeed he ever memorised the vocabulary himself)?

And finally, I have some queries about the corrections of my last text:
 
ghItlhpu' Qov:

>}pongwIj James Bayley ghaHtaH.
>
>The pronoun goes first, and the noun must have {-'e'} on it. {James 
>Bayley 'oH pongwIj'e'}  
>
>Literally, "My name, it is JMB."  In Klingon you must use the >pronoun 
as well as the noun when you say something is something else.

Now, that's really confused me. Stop me when I go wrong... 
Bearing O-V-S in mind, I can see now that "James Bayley" is the object 
and is therefore at the beginning of the sentence and that "my name" is 
the subject, resulting in "pongwIj" being at the end. However, surely, 
"James Bayley 'oH pongwIj" is enough by itself. Of course, I'm not 
arguing with you, because you obviously know what you're talking about, 
but TKD 6.2.5. explains the use of 'e' as a topic marker referring to a 
previous SENTENCE as a whole. I speak Japanese, and this 'e' 
construction in, for example, "qama'pu' DIHoH 
'e' luSov", uses identical syntax to the equivalent Japanese 
translation, so I am familiar with this concept, but "we kill prisoners" 
is a sentence and "my name" is not. Moreover, to quote TKD 6.2.5.: "'e' 
and 'net' are always treated as the object of the verb". What verb? - 
There is no verb in "James Bayley 'oH pongwIj'e'". Also, 'e' is listed 
in the suffixes dictionary, but it is only used as a seperate word in 
TKD. Please explain. 

mumISmoH.

Incidentally, should "tlhIngan-Hol" be hyphenated or is it two words? - 
I've seen it written with and without, and is it OK to say "Klingon" in 
English? - I've noticed that people tend to avoid saying it, and that 
the language is almost always referred to as "tlhIngan Hol" even in the 
middle of English texts). 

Thanx.

James Bayley - ghojwI' chu'
[email protected]

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