tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 21 15:15:00 1997

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: KLBC: tlhIngan loDvam 'Iv ?

[email protected] on behalf of [email protected] wrote:
> tlhIngan loD *picture* SalI'pu'

maj.  However, just in case you performed and completed this action 
intentionally, you might want to use {-ta'} instead of {-pu'}.  This depends 
on your exact meaning.

> loDvam pong(Daj) 'e' vISovbe'

When you use the possessive noun-noun formation, you do not also use a 
possessive suffix, and vice-versa.  You must either say {loDvam pong} or 
{pongDaj}, not both.

{'e'} refers to the previous *sentence*, not a noun phrase like {loDvam pong}. 
 It is not used for anything except Sentences As Object.

loDvam pong vISovbe'.

> wej ben lingpu'bogh *postcard*Daq *picture* vItu'pu'

"I had found the picture on a postcard which had produced three years ago."

Depending on which fantasy world you're living in, {wej ben} may or may not be 
correct.  We've seen Okrand describe Earth years, and he would simply say 
{tera' DIS cha' wej Soch wa'}.

Of course, we get into the question of whether you mean you found this picture 
three years ago, or that the picture was produced three years ago, and where 
would be the appropriate place for the time context.

{lIng} means "produce," not "be produced."  This means that the subject is the 
person or thing which produces something else.  In this case, someone else 
produces the postcard.

Unfortunately, changing this to {"postcard" lInglu'bogh} means you have to 
accept using a {-bogh} clause on a noun with {-Daq}.  Perhaps this is 
possible, but it's certainly questionable.

Get rid of some of this aspect.  Remember, {-ta'} and {-pu'} mean that an 
action is already completed as of the time context we're talking about.  If 
you woke up at 8:00, you don't say {chorgh vatlh rep jIvempu'} (this would be 
more like saying "I was already awake at 8:00), you say {chorghvatlh rep 
jIvem} "I woke up at 8:00."  There is no tense in Klingon.

wej ben "postcard"Daq lInglu'bogh "picture" vItu'

> tlhIngan loDvam 'Iv ?

maj.

> I have a picture attached to my eMail (53K, who-isit.jpg).
> It is from some Klingon but I don't know who it is
> I found it on a postcard which was made in 2371, right after StarTrek
> Generations.
> I was just curious WHO it is, because nobody could tell me so far.

You've left out some of your original meaning.  When starting to learn Klingon 
this will happen, because you've not yet learned to recast certain English 
phrases.  Keep working at that.  Otherwise, keep up the good work!

P.S.: AOL file attachments are really unsuitable for this list.  For one 
thing, other list members do not receive them as separate files: they're part 
of the message itself and must be downloaded.  Secondly, the list is for 
discussion of the Klingon language or discussion in Klingon only.  Pictures 
and fonts are not supposed to go here.  If you want to show these things to 
others, or make them available, you must write a message in Klingon, with a 
URL leading to the information.  For example:

Hov poH juvmeH patwIj yIyaj!  naDev yIjaH:
http://members.aol.com/dtrimboli/stardate.html

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97553.0

Back to archive top level