tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Aug 23 10:04:24 1998

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Re: KLBC vISop ghop

---"Michael H. Clawson (toQ pach puqloD)" <[email protected]> wrote:

I see you're working with the prefixes.  Three points you need to
understand:

1. Word order:

In Klingon the thing or person that is the object of the verb, to what
or to whom the action of the verb happens, always goes BEFORE the
verb. The thing that does the action of the verb goes AFTER the verb. 
This is the reverse of normal English, so it might take some getting
used to.  Here are some examples.

tlhIngan legh targh - The targ sees the Klingon.
romuluSngan HoH tlhIngan - A Klingon killed a Romulan.
betleH lo' SuvwI' - The warrior will use a betleH.

Notice that in each case the thing/person that gets seen/used/killed
comes first, then the verb, and last the thing/person who performed
the action.  

The sentence doesn't have to have an explicit subject and object, but
you still musn't put the subject before the verb or the object after it.

2. Verb prefixes.  

Please re-read section 4.1 (right up to the beginning of 4.2).  Leave
the book open at page 33 and then read this:

As soon as you use a verb in Klingon you must choose the correct
prefix for it.  To do this, first figure out the subject, who is
performing the action.  Look down the first column of the table on
page 33 to find the row that best matches the subject. I, you (one
person), he/she/it, we, you (more than one person), or they.  For
example, "My mother and I" should be considered to be "we."  "His
nose" whould be "it."  So would "your book" and "my targ."  Even
though they are associated with a person, they aren't that person.

Now you know what row to find your prefix in.

The next step is to figure out what the object is, the thing or person
the action is being performed on.  From the top row of the table,
choose the column that best matches the object.  The prefix you need
is in the intersection of the row that matches your subject and the
column that matches your object.  

Believe it or not this *does* become automatic after time.

Here are some examples:

I want to say.  "I see."  Obviously the subject is "I," the person
doing the eating, so I know my prefix is in the first row.  What's the
object? What do I see?  Well I'm not saying, it's not important.  Just
seeing in general.  So there is no object.  So my prefix is in the
first column, the one labelled "none."  The prefix is /jI-/.  So I
take the verb for "see" /legh/ and put the prefix on it.  /jIlegh/  I
see.

Now I want to say "you see me."  Here the subject is "you."  I'll say
I'm talking to one person, so the second row of the table applies. The
object is "me."   That's in the second column. The prefix at the
intersection of the first row and second column is /cho-/.  cholegh. 
"You see me."

3. Possessive suffixes.

Re-read section 3.3.4.  In Klingon instead of using words like "my"
"your" and "his" to show who owns something when you aren't using the
person's name, you use noun suffixes, syllables added to the end of
the noun.  The suffixes are listed on page 25.  /-wIj/ is for "my" and
/-lIj/ is for "your," for example.

tlhaq - clock  tlhaqwIj - my clock
targh - targ   targhlIj - your targ

Notice that if the possession is a person you use different suffixes,
but you can worry about that later.

Okay, that's a lot of information.  For the sentences you want to
write, you have to combine these three ideas: word order, prefixes
*and* possessive suffixes.  I give you the choice: fix up your
sentences using all these ideas, or do these easier exercises, and try
yours again later when you have mastered the tools.  

Here are the easier exercises:

The boy boiled the meat.
A mother cares for a child.
Ferengi are greedy.
A scientist analyzes plastic.

I boiled the meat.
They cared for me.
You (one person) are greedy.
He will analyze you (multiple people).

his pet
her pet
my tooth
your hand (one person)
our lives

And here are your original sentences.  I won't comment on them until
you've had a chance to fix them.  

> vISop ghop
> He ate her hand.
> 
> kaSopbe' ghop
> I didn't eat your hand.
> 
> vISopbe' ghopDu'
> I didn't eat their hands.
> 
> vISopbe' ghop 'ej 'oH 'eyqu'
> I ate his hand it was very good


==
Qov - Beginners' Grammarian
"1999 is the penultimate year of the 20th century."


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