tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 02 15:24:02 1997

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Re: I need a little help here

I'd like to step in this one time, please.

At 02:05 PM 7/2/97 -0700, you wrote:
>   I have a few questions like what's the Klingon translation for the word
>"a"?

In Klingon, "a" (the indefinite article) is wa. For example, "wa targh tlha'
ghungwI'"  -- The hungry guy chased a targ. You can make it "one (and only
one) targ" by saying "wa' targh", the ' at the end indicating the abrupt
stop that terminates the range of possibilities for the broad existential
meaning of wa.

1) wa targh : there exists some targ such that... (it exists way out there
among many other possible targs, possibly an infinity of them)
2) wa' targh : there exists one targ and no more, such that... (only one;
that's it; all other targs are officially excluded)

See how nicely that works out?

>   And what's the Klingon translation for the word "am"? And I have just one
>more what's the diference between the word SuvwI and the word Vaj? 
>    I'm kinda new at this so I'd appreciate it if you all would help me out
>thanks

Well, you're in luck, because in Klingon there is no conjugation. There is
one word for "am", "is", and "are", the forms of "to be" in present tense,
as you may recall from some class or other you took somewhere along the
lines. You may have bad memories of such places, but now it's time to face
your pain.

Anyway, any form of "to be" in Klingon is represented by 'oH. You can say
"lam 'oH Duj'e'" for "The ship is dirty", but also "HoD 'oH jIH'e'" for "I
am the captain". In literal abbreviations, these are talked about as "The
ship be dirty" and "I be the captain", since Klingons as we all know do not
care about such fine grammatical distinctions as "am, is, are". Plaahh!!

And of course, the -'e' at the end of those sentences is necessary.

Lastly, vaj and SuvwI' are different in that vaj is a much older word, and
only used in lofty ceremonial contexts. SuvwI' applies elsewhere. If you
ever happen to use vaj out of religious or santified circumstances, you
would discovered how much offense Klingons take to this. It is almost a
worse insult than H*b S*SwI' Q*ch.

And so, go forth with this knowledge, and if you have any more questions,
the BG will certainly be of good services, maybe even better than I was.

wa SuvwI' QaQ 'oH SoH'e'.



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  "Black holes are where God divided by zero."
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