tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Feb 15 12:21:06 1997

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RE: KLBC: tlhIngan lut

February 14, 1997 6:33 AM EST, jatlh Qaan maS:

> nuqneH
> I began subscribing to this malinglist about 1-2 weeks ago. I have been
> reading the mails and I think it's time for me to get a few mail away
> myself. I will be trying to write a short story so...I'll prolly send a
> coupple of mails in this topic.

Welcome, Qaan!

> SuvwI' qanwI' ba' quS law' puqpu' retlh
> lu'Ij jay' vIS lujatlh lut
> 
> "An old warrior is sitting in a chair with many childen beside him. They
> listen intensly to him while he tells them a story."

Okay.  Your first task is to read all of chapter 6 in TKD.  Concetrate 
especially on the first part.  There you will learn the specifics of Klingon 
sentence order.

Klingon sentences are written in the order Object-Verb-Subject.  The subject 
of the sentence comes last.  Most of the time, nouns with Type 5 noun suffixes 
on them ({-Daq}, {-vaD}, etc.) will come before this structure, as does all of 
the other {chuvmey} (words that aren't nouns or verbs).

To translate your first sentence, it will be easiest if you split it into two 
sentences (there are other ways, but they're a bit complicated for now).  
You're got all the words right, so now you've got to put them in the right 
order.  Let's start with: "A warrior is sitting."

ba'taH SuvwI'
A warrior is sitting.

Notice how {SuvwI'} comes last?  Also, see the suffix {-taH} there?  I 
recommend you look it up in TKD section 4.2.7.  You'll see this suffix a lot.  
It means that the action is continuous, not just a one-time occurrance.  If I 
had just said {ba' SuvwI'}, it would indicate that the warrior sits down, not 
that he was already sitting, and was continuing to do so.

Now, how do you say "old warrior"?  Well, if you take a look at TKD section 
4.4, you'll find that we can use verbs expressing states or qualities as 
adjectives in Klingon.  {qan} means "be old," so you need merely add it after 
the noun: {SuvwI' qan} "old warrior."

ba'taH SuvwI' qan.
An old warrior is sitting.

Now, how do we get "in a chair"?  You tried just adding the word chair to the 
end, but this doesn't really work.  Instead, you must read the very important 
section in TKD: 3.3.5.  You'll find the suffix {-Daq}.  It can mean "in" or 
"at" or "on" or any other locative meaning necessary.  Once you've read this 
part, you can follow this:

quSDaq ba'taH SuvwI' qan.
An old warrior is sitting in a chair.

Now for the next part, "Many children were sitting beside him."  Again, you've 
got all the right words, so let's just put them in order.  You can now do most 
of this sentence:

ba'taH puqpu' law'
Many children were sitting.

The "beside him" is a little tricky.  Here's how you do it.  You correctly 
chose {retlh} "area next to."  Now, all you've got to do is specify *which* 
area next to you mean.  {retlhDaj} "his area next to."  Finally, use the 
locative suffix {-Daq} again.

retlhDajDaq ba'taH puqpu' law'.
Many children were sitting next to him.

As a side-note, if you carefully read TKD section 3.3.2, you'll find that you 
could use the {-mey} suffix to indicate that there were "children scattered 
all about," which might be the case here.  Your sentence could be

retlhDajDaq ba'taH puqmey.

It ends up meaning, more or less, "Children were sitting all around him."

That was the easy part.  Your second sentence is a bit harder.

"They listen intensely to him while he tells them a story."  Let's break this 
one down for a moment.

"They listen to him."  In TKD, the word {'Ij} means "listen," not "listen to." 
 You probably cannot say {lu'Ij}.  Rather, just say {'Ij} "they listen."  The 
context is clear.  Once again, I suggest you add the {-taH} suffix to indicate 
that the listening is ongoing (for those of you who object, saying that {-lI'} 
is better, let me point out that I never listen to a story with the idea in my 
mind of completing it).

How to say "intensely"?  You tried to use {jay'}, but that actually is only 
used to make your sentence into an invective.  You just cursed at us!  
However, if the children's attention is completely focused on the old warrior, 
you can use a new suffix, {-chu'} "clearly, perfectly" (see TKD section 
4.2.6).  {'Ijchu'taH} means "They are listening perfectly."  Note that you 
have to keep the suffixes in the correct order; you cannot say {'IjtaHchu'}.

"While he tells them a story."  This requires the use of a subordinate clause, 
so please look over TKD section 6.2.2).  You were correct in thinking you 
needed {-vIS}, but it *must* be used on a verb, and it *must* be used with the 
suffix {-taH}.

To say this, you're also going to need to understand the suffix {-vaD}.  TKD 
3.3.5 explains it,  and there's a very important bit about it in the 
Addendum's section 6.8.  Essentially, the noun which has {-vaD} on it is the 
beneficiary of whatever the verb is.

lut ja'taH
He is telling a story.

chaHvaD lut ja'taH.
He is telling a story to them.

See?

Finally, we need to get the "while" part in there.Using the subordinate 
clause, we get

chaHvaD lut ja'taHvIS
while he telling a story to them

Of course, this is not a complete sentence, and must be added to the other 
part we worked out above.

chaHvaD lut ja'taHvIS 'Ijchu'taH.
'Ijchu'taH chaHvaD lut ja'taHvIS.

Both of these mean "They listen completely while he tells them a story."  You 
can put the subordinate clause on either end of the main verb, {'Ijchu'taH}.

quSDaq ba'taH SuvwI' qan.  retlhDajDaq ba'taH puqmey.  chaHvaD lut ja'taHvIS, 
'Ijchu'taH.

There we are!

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97127.3

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