tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 12 19:24:02 1998
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Re: poH'a'
ja' K'ryntes:
>It takes me a long time when I write something in Klingon. Teachers, how
>long does it take you?
It takes me about the same amount of time to figure out what I want to say
whether I want to say it in English or in Klingon. I know the vocabulary
and grammar well enough that I can compose my Klingon sentences without
having to worry about encountering problems translating the ideas. But I
think it takes two or three times as long for me actually to *write* the
Klingon words, because I can't yet touch-type as quickly in Klingon and
because I do occasionally have to stop and double-check my spelling.
If I'm trying to talk about something like Special Relativity, which is
not a good match for the available vocabulary, I do tend to spend quite
a lot of time crafting my sentences so they have at least a chance of
being understood by others. :-)
>When I started learning, it seemed to me that Klingon sentences are the
>same as English if I read them backwards. So when I write Klingon, I
>start at the end of a sentence and write it backwards. I'm guessing that
>since you're not sure what I wrote that my theory is wrong. Or maybe I'm
>just wrong with the grammar. I don't know. hmmmmmmmmm
You're nearly right, but you're misinterpreting the pattern. English
sentences are generally in the order SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT, and Klingon
sentences are always OBJECT-VERB-SUBJECT. But anything else in the
Klingon clause (adverbs, locatives, timestamps, etc.) must be placed
before the object. Subordinate clauses (marked with a type 9 suffix
on the verb) can generally either precede or follow the main clause,
but within each clause the OBJECT-VERB-SUBJECT order is followed.
You can't just take an English sentence and turn the translated words
around and expect to get grammatically correct Klingon. You have to
follow the correct patterns for constructing a Klingon sentence. Take
a careful look at Chapter 6 of The Klingon Dictionary, where the basic
syntax is defined. Chapter 5 also explains where certain words go.
-- ghunchu'wI'