tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 09 14:54:31 1997
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Re: [KLBC] New student joins the list. (tetlh muv ghojwI' chu')
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: [KLBC] New student joins the list. (tetlh muv ghojwI' chu')
- Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 14:54:22 -0800
At 22:47 97-12-08 -0800, 'etyen wrote:
}>} qaghItlhneS,
}>
}>{ghItlh} is an awkward word. It means write, but it doesn't carry
}>the same connotations as English "write."
...
}OK. qa- is the wrong suffix, but I though ghItlh was the right verb because
}I got it from the welcome letter of the Postal Course. I just thought it was
}a standard way of opening a letter like Dear... in English)
We've never seen Klingons write letters, so we don't know what their
standard salutation is, if they don't just start in on the main ponts
without any. The postal course has been going for a number of years, and I
suspect that the hard working David Barron composed that letter before
Okrand clarified the meaning of {ghItlh}. You don't have to read far back
in the archives to find grammarians recommending things we now shudder at.
We just don't know what it is that we think we know now, that will be wrong
next year. :)
}My name is French but there isn't much else about me that is. I happen to
}have a smattering of French from school but I'm far more comfortable with
}Klingon than French!
Grin. I'll leave out the French analogies, then.
}DaH Malta Sep De' Sanob
}
}MaltaDaq Holmey law' jatlhlu' 'ach *Maltese* 'oH *Malta* Hol'e'.
}< Many languages are spoken in Malta but Maltese is the official language >
{lujatlhlu'} - a verb with an indefinite subject and a plural object takes
the prefix {lu-}. (TKD 4.2.4)
}Holmey DuDghach'a' 'oH *Malta* Hol'e'
I kind of like this one, but Marc Okrand has told us (not in TKD) that
putting {-ghach} on a bare verb is a 'marked' usage, so {DuDghach'a'} is
something like "a big mixation." To avoid this effect, perhaps
{DuDpu'ghach'a'} would mean mixture. After all, you want a noun for the
result of having mixed, not the mixing itself.
}< Maltese is a big mixture of languages >
}*Italy* Hol mu'mey *England* Hol mu'mey je ngaS *Malta* Hol 'ach bIH pIm
}*Malta* Hol
majQa'. Only hitch is that {pIm} is "be different" not "be differnt from" so
the object {bIH} doesn't work. You could just say {pImbej *Malta* Hol}
"Maltese is definitely different" or {bIH rurchu'be' *Malta* Hol} "Maltese
is not completely similar to them."
}< Maltese contains words from Italian and English but it is different from
}them >
}qaStaHvIS Malta qun woQmey law' lucharghpu'
}<Throughout Malta's history it has been conquered by many powers >
{... lucharghpu' woQmey law'} Don't forget to put the subject after the verb.
}lucharghpu' *Rome* Sep *France* Sep *Arabia* Sep *Spain* Sep *England* Sep
}je Hoch
}< Rome, France, Arabia, Spain and England have all conquered malta >
I suggest that it was not the regions (Sep} of Rome &c. that conquered
Malta, but their armies. Or you could just say the names of the countries
alone and assume Klingons will make the normal assumptions about how
conquering occurs.
The {Hoch} at the end for "... have all conquered" doesn't fit in Klingon
grammar. I'd just leave it out.
}'ach SuvwI'pu' yoH gharwI'pu' 'ong je chaH 'e' *Malta* nganpu' 'ej jajvam
}matlhab!
}<but the Maltese are brave warriors and sly diplomats and today we are
}independent!>
Dun mu'tlheghvetlh! For some reason you turned the suffix that should have
been on {nganpu'} into a separate word after {chaH}. {... chaH Malta
nganpu''e'}
Normally the word for today is {DaHjaj} but I like {jajvam} better for this
declaration.
}*Mediterranean* bIQ'a'Daq Sep mach 'oH *Malta* Sep'e' 'ach Segh Hem maH
}< malta is a small island in the Mediterranean sea but we are a proud people
majQa'.
}rut tlhInganpu' wIrur !
}< Sometimes we resemble the Klingons! ;-) >
{DIrur} -- prefix is different with a plural object: lots of traps in that
prefix table. :)
majQa' 'etyen. Dajqu' qunlIj 'ej DaDelchu'. tlhIngan Hol mu'tay Dalo'qu'ta'.
Describing something you know well in simple terms is the best way to learn
this stuff. I invite anyone who has trouble thinking of what to write to
describe to me, not through translating any history text, but in original
Klingon words, like 'etyen's account, some event in the history of his or
her country, region, or ancestors. If the vocabulary for what you want to
say isn't there, back off and go more general.
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian