tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jan 12 21:07:47 1997

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RE: KLBC: naDev bIrbejqu'!

January 12, 1997 7:30 PM EST, jatlh Voqrel:

> DaHjaj jIvempu' 'ej muD ja' vI'Ijpu'.

It sounds as if you are treating {-pu'} like a past-tense suffix.  It is not.  
It indicates *completion*.  You give us a time context, {DaHjaj}.  Considering 
that you must be awake in order to type your message, it seems pretty obvious 
that {DaHjaj} refers to that part of the day which is before now.  Since 
that's your temporal context, you don't need {-pu'}.  The action happened at 
the time we're talking about; it wasn't already complete at that time.

DaHjaj jIvem.
I woke up today.

Also, {ja'} is a verb, not a noun.  You cannot use it in a phrase like 
"weather report."  However, you should try using it as a verb: {ja' muDtej} 
"The weatherman reported."

Finally, the entry in TKD for {'Ij} says "listen," not "listen to."  While 
this is not certain, it's likely that you cannot say {vI'Ij} for "I listen to 
it."  It would mean "I listen it."  Rather, say {vIQoy}, "I hear it."  To 
Okrand's mind, in TKW (page 31), it seems that {'Ij} means the act of 
receiving audible information in the ear, and {Qoy} refers to the 
understanding of this information.

DaHjaj jIvem 'ej ja' muDtej 'e' vIQoy.
I woke up today and I heard the weatherman report.

> bIr Hat ja' muDHaDwI'.

When used adjectivally, verbs must come after the noun.

Hat bIr ja' muDtej.
The weatherman reported a cold temperature.  (I like my word better  :-P  )

You may have meant this as a sentence for speaking.  Let me put brackets to 
indicate the quotataion:

<bIr Hat> ja' muDtej.

Perhaps this is what you meant.  Brackets aren't required, but they make the 
sentence much more understandable.  Anyway, I'd prefer to say

<bIr muD> ja muDtej.

> bIng pagh vaghmaH!

We don't have any way to describe temperature in this way, I think.  Certainly 
{bIng} doesn't refer to a scalar measurement!  It's referring to a location.  
(Unless, one might argue, Klingons refer to the "area below" 0 degrees Celcius 
on a thermometer, which I really doubt.)

Here's a cute way to do this:

cha'vatlh cha'maH wej "Kelvin" 'oH Hat'e'.
The temperature is 223 Kelvin.

The *really* nice thing about this is that you don't need a word for 
"degrees"; measurements in Kelvins are stated without them.  223 Kelvin is 
approximately -50 degrees C.  (You want exact?  223.16 Kelvin, but don't ask 
me to translate the decimal!)

> ngevwI' jiH, 'ach DaHjaj pagh vIngevbe'. qaStaHvIS cha' repmey,
> <store>Daq ghoS pagh.

It's not wrong, but I must point out that Klingons would view adding {-Daq} to 
the destination before {ghoS} as a little redundant.  You could just say 
{"store" ghoS pagh}.

> vaj <store> vISoQmoHpu'

Again, unless you're talking about an action that had already occurred when 
the context occurs, you don't need or want {-pu'}.

"Closing" a store is a bit idiomatic, and may not be the correct way to say 
this in Klingon.  One can open or close a window, but this is a different 
thing that opening or closing a store.

How about this (a rather different approach):

vaj malja' vImev 'ej "store" vImej.
Therefore, I stopped business and left the store.

If you really need to, you could say

'ej "store" vIngaQmoH
And I locked the store.

> 'ej juH jIjaHpu'.

Again, you should probably remove the {-pu'}.

> val Hoch
> 'ach valbe' jIH! {{:)

You must always remember verb prefixes!  {val Hoch 'ach jIvalbe' jIH!}

> SuStel, I had a lot of trouble trying to render "15 degrees below zero".
> I tried everything I could think of, but that was all I could do.

Don't worry.  As I said, it's a tough one.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97035.5

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