tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Nov 13 10:46:32 1997

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Re: KLBC introducing myself

HovqIj, as you knew to mark your subject with KLBC for my 
attention, you are probably expecting me to do what I'm about to do 
... I'm Qov, the current, or at least the only-a-few-days-behind 
Beginners' Grammarian for this list and my task is to help you, and 
anyone else who is bold enough to post, write better tlhIngan Hol.

One comment applies all the way through this post: always shift for 
{I} in tlhIngan Hol.  With it lowercase the shapes of the words don't 
look right and it's hard to read, which will make some people ignore 
your postings. 

> jimuch'egh vinegh. 

I'm guessing that you've learned the word for "want" by sound.  It's 
{neH}.  The difference is that {H} is unvoiced, but for {gh} you make 
a sound in your voicebox.  {negh} means "soldiers."  

Consider the verb {lIH} as well as {much}, but there is nothing wrong 
with {jImuch'egh}, once the {I} is shifted.

> Hovqij 'oH pongwij'e' 'ej naDev jichu'.

maj.  batlh bItagh.  'ach {I} yIlIjQo'!

> tlhIngan HolDaq rivSo'wIj wa'DIch rivSo'vam'e'.

A verb missing here, and something else not quite right.   I get: "My 
first embassy at the location of the Klingon language this embassy."
Now that I translate that, I can guess you're aiming at "This is my 
first <something> in Klingon.  Here's why it didn't work.

The suffix {-Daq} refers to physical location, not other concepts 
that are in English expressed with the same prepositions.  So "on the 
ship" but not "on time," "in the camp" but not "in trouble" or "in 
Klingon,"  "at a bar" but not "at the bad news."  To say "in Klingon" 
I would say something like {tlhIngan Hol vIlo'taHvIs} "while I am 
using Klingon."

The construction "A is B" when A and B are both things or people is 
rendered in Klingon as {B <pronoun> A'e'}.  You've left out the 
pronoun.

And finally, I suspect you've misread the vocabulary list. {rIvSo'} 
means only "embassy."  (Correct me if I'm wrong: I don't have a 
wordlist here). If you are trying to make embassy mean your mission 
of extending relations to the Klingon-speaking community, I think 
you've overextended the word.  Consider {jabbI'ID}, {ghItlhHom}, 
{mu'tlheghmey}, and {QIn} (not in the dictionary: means "message").

Perhaps: tlhIngan jabbI'IDwIj wa'DIch 'oH jabbI'IDvam

> "Star Trek" vIparHa'mo' 'ej Holmey vIghoj vIparha'mo' tlhIngan Hol
> vIghoj viwuq

There is only one verb that you may place directly after another to 
indicate that the action of the first verb is the object of the 
second: {neH}.  For all other verbs you must use the 
sentence-as-object construction, described in section 6.something ... 
maybe 3.  (sorry I'm flying without a net today, check the table of 
contents).  Your sentence would be:

ST vIparHa'mo' 'ej Holmey vIghoj 'e' vIparHa'mo' tlhIngan Hol vIghoj 
'e' vIwuq.

Note that {H} in {parHa'} is important.

batlh bItaghba'.  moHaqmey Dalo'chu'.  yoybe'
mu'tlheghmeylIj.  pabmaj Huj DayajchoH.  yIHem.

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