tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 21 15:31:20 1997
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RE: chu`wI'
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: chu`wI'
- Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 22:57:37 UT
January 21, 1997 7:27 AM EST, jatlh Dan Anatol (baS'ugh):
> pongwIj baS`ugh
Hi, baS'ugh! (Great name!) I'm SuStel, the list's Beginners' Grammarian.
It's my job to help out newcomers and other beginners with their questions,
and to monitor beginners' conversations to help them get their language right.
If you want to mark a question for me, or want to hold a conversation at a
beginner-level, mark the beginning of your subject line with the letters
"KLBC." This will mean that the BG is the first person allowed to correct the
grammar and vocabulary of the post, although anyone else is free to answer the
content. And please wait for me to respond to others' KLBC questions!
If you haven't already, please check out the KLI's homepage,
http://www.kli.org
and this list's FAQ:
http://www.thomtech.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm
And now onto business! When writing a message that you want help with, it's
best to send it one line at a time, with the Klingon and then the English
under it (easier for me to format, and I'll be able to figure out what you
said if you said it badly).
Your first sentence was {pongwIj baS'ugh}. This would do fine in clipped,
quick speech, but it's not the fully grammatical form. There are several ways
to do this. All are a little complex. The one you were going for was
*baS'ugh* 'oH pongwIj'e'.
My name is {baS'ugh}.
To understand the grammar behind this, please see TKD section 6.3.
>thlIngan Hol vIHaDtaH.
Watch that spelling; it can get tricky. It's {tlh}.
maj! batlh tlhIngan Hol DaghojchoH!
> tera`ngan jIH.
You shouldn't use those reversed apostrophes. Some people may not be able to
read them, and the standard is {'}.
tera'ngan jIH je.
> poH nI` jIQongpu` `ach DaH jIvemchoH.
There are a few, subtle, problems here. The first is the time element. If
you're talking about the time at which an action occurs, not the time an
action occurs *during*, you can just say the time (this is fairly certain
grammar). For example, "I slept yesterday" would be {wa'Hu' jIQong}. It has
nothing to do with happening *while yesterday was occuring*.
What you're trying to say is "While a long time was occuring." There's a
wonderful little verb which you should get to know: {qaS}. Watch this:
{qaStaHvIS poH nI', jIQongtaH}. Cool, huh?
Have you noticed that I didn't use {-pu'} on {Qong}? That's the next thing we
need to look at. I direct your attention to the FAQ on the matter of tense in
Klingon. The short version: tense is not indicated grammatically in Klingon.
To indicate that something happened in the past, present, or future, explain
the situation (see TKD section 4.2.7). {wa'Hu' jIQong} means "I slept
yesterday." {wa'leS jIQong} means "I will sleep tomorrow." {DaHjaj jIQong}
means "I sleep today." See? The time-element takes care of the tense.
Finally, you said {DaH jIvemchoH}. It's nice to see you using {-choH}, but
I'm unsure: were you intending to mean "I am beginning to wake up" (which is
what you said)? Or did you mean, "I wake up now?" {DaH jIvem}? Or perhaps
"As of now, I have woken up." {DaH jIQongpu'}. (All of these are explained in
the FAQ, and in section 4.2.7 of TKD.)
> Holraj vIHadrup.
Be sure to capitalize that {D}!
Holmaj, jup, Holmaj! :)
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97059.4