tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 07 16:13:31 1997

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RE: KLBC: Conversational Klingon

jatlh Edy Fonseca:

> 	There is a expression for "again"?  As: 
> 
>   here it comes again 
>      or 
>  I need read the TKD again and again
> 
> I could guess:  ghoSqa' 'oH naDevDaq
>       and       tlhIngan mu'ghom vIlaDnISqa'qu'

Your second sentence about reading TKD again and again is excellent despite a 
small problem.  You have to say {tlhIngan Hol mu'ghom}.  But the {-qu'} on 
{-qa'} is brilliant!  It doesn't imply constant repetition, but I think it's 
emphasizing exactly what you want.

The first sentence isn't right, though.  "Here it comes again."  Here *what* 
comes again?  {ghoSqa'} "it resumes approaching," or {cholqa'} "it resumes 
getting closer" might work as this sentence literally, but I think you're 
trying to play with an idiom.  Is this the sort of thing you're saying when 
you're exasperated with a situation?  "Oh no, not again"?  That sort of thing? 
 That's an expression in English which shouldn't be taken literally.  An 
appropriate Klingon invective would be {ghuy'cha'}, which Okrand says a 
Klingon might say "after receiving an unsettling communique."

> > In this case, though, it's not necessary.
> 
> 	So, an I say: rut jatlhtaHbogh mu'mey vIyajbe'   (?)
>                      (sometimes I do not understand the words which they are
>                      saying)

"They" are doing the saying, so "they" becomes the subject of the relative 
clause.  What are they saying?  "Words."  This is the object of the relative 
clause.  {mu'mey jatlhtaHbogh chaH}.  The {chaH} is optional, though, and may 
be dropped.  {mu'mey jatlhtaHbogh} "words which they are saying."

rut mu'mey jatlhtaHbogh vIyajbe'.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97349.6

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