tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 09 17:16:53 1997
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RE: vacation
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: vacation
- Date: Mon, 9 Jun 97 23:01:55 UT
[email protected] on behalf of [email protected] wrote:
> Hello, everyone. jIHtaHbogh naDev viSovbe'.
tlhIngan Hol jabbI'IDghomDaq SoHtaH!
> I am very new to this group
> and very new to tlhingan-hol.
Welcome! I'm SuStel, the list's Beginners' Grammarian. I'm here to give
beginners a hand with the language. If you put "KLBC" in the subject, I'll
pay special attention to the letter. You can ask me grammatical or vocabulary
questions, or (better yet) start chatting with others, including beginners.
I'll monitor your conversation, helping you out where you need it. The other
aspect of posting under KLBC is that it keeps others from immediately trying
to correct your grammar. To avoid massive confusion, I'll answer first, and
afterwards, everyone else will catch any of my mistakes or oversights.
In case you haven't been there yet, there are two very important web sites to
visit:
The Klingon Language Institute
http://www.kli.org
this list's FAQ
http://www.thomtech.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm
> How would one go about saying something along the lines of "have a good
> vacation?"
>
> According to TKD, the "good" I am looking for is QaQ. However, I'm not sure
> how to work this into the rest of what I want to say.
One of the first things you'll hear me shouting around here is that Klingon
focuses more on verbs than it does on nouns. English, on the other hand, uses
nouns a lot more than verbs. Often, a sentence in English which is noun-based
will be best said in Klingon using verbs.
In this case, we have a verb for "vacation": {ghIQ}. Literally, it's "take a
vacation."
Now, you can't just say {bIghIQ} "You take a vacation" or {yIghIQ} "Go on a
vacation!" This isn't what you mean. Well, what exactly *do* you mean? Do
you mean "Enjoy your vacation"? Do you mean "Have a vacation in which you do
things of goodness"? Do you mean "Be honorable on your vacation"? What do
you mean? You must choose, and then make an appropriate sentence.
In this case, you *probably* mean something like "Enjoy your vacation." There
may be other variations on this, but let's just work on this one. "Enjoy" is
{tIv}. What are you supposed to enjoy? The act of vacationing. This act is
the object itself. This requires the rather difficult Sentence As Object,
described in TKD 6.2.5. I recommend you take a look at that now.
In this case, the first sentence is going to be
bIghIQ
You take a vacation.
Now, if that's the thing you want someone to enjoy, tell them to "enjoy that."
'e' yItIv
Enjoy that (the previous sentence)
Put them together:
bIghIQ 'e' yItIv
Enjoy that you take a vacation.
Enjoy your vacation.
Note that this is just one possible idea. When you decide *exactly* what you
mean by "have a good vacation," you'll be better able to decide what to say in
Klingon.
--
"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the
grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy
eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it
is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this
morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
[...]
"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank
you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that
the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use 'Good morning' for!" said Gandalf. "Now you
mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move
off."
-------The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97440.0