tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 09 15:26:41 1997

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RE: KLBC: epitets and invectives

jatlh Edy Fonseca:

> 	jItulqu' (I hope so)
> 	Hol Dun tlhIngan Hol 'ej nom ghurtaH. (Klingon is a wonderful language and 
it
> 					       is increasing too fast).


"Klingon is a wonderful language."  In English, this is done with nouns and 
adjectives, and an itsy-bitsy little verb, "is."  In Klingon, there are no 
adjectives, you don't need as many nouns, and the verb is doing all the work.  
Focus on verbs.

The verb here is "be wonderful."  When you said {Hol Dun tlhIngan Hol}, you 
said "Wonderful language Klingon."  Instead of thinking of this in English 
(well, for you, in Spanish, I suppose) as "Klingon is a wonderful language," 
think of it as "The Klingon language is wonderful."  This says exactly what 
you mean, doesn't it?

Once you see it that way, the rest is easy.  {Dun} is "be wonderful."  What is 
wonderful?  {tlhIngan Hol}.  Since that's the thing being wonderful, it's the 
subject of the sentence.

Dun tlhIngan Hol.
The Klingon language is wonderful.

> nom ghurtaH

Literally, this means "It increases quickly."  Your translation said "It 
increases *too* quickly."  If you want this, you'll have to add the suffix 
{-qu'}, which can emphasize the verb.  Unfortunately, we have to way of 
emphasizing the adverbial {nom} (except that when you say it out loud, you can 
stress it), but the following should work:

nom ghurqu'taH
It is increasing a lot, quickly.

However, I have a question: what is increasing?  The Klingon language is a 
thing which does not have a count.  It might "expand" {Sach}, but it does not 
increase.  I think you really want to say

nom Sachqu'taH
It's expanding a lot, quickly.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97355.1

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