tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 25 19:00:56 1998

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Re: KLBC: jIchegh



[email protected] wrote:

> nuqneH. 

As has been pointed out, nuqneH would more properly be my response to
you approaching me.  Klingon simply doesn't have a salutation that
means "Hello."  If you want to say something in Klingon, you say it. 
Preliminaries are discouraged.  I blame some of the nuqneH problem on
the flysheet of TKD where the word is introduced as being a
salutation, and the rest on the non-Klingon speaking Klingon RPG
community, where I've become inured to its use as in an exchange of 
pleasantries.

> notjISaH 'oH pongwIj'e'.

chaq not bISaH, 'ach pab DaqawtaH. :)

> Hu' law'qu' jabbI'IDghomvaD jabbI'IDHommey
> puS vIghaq. ghaytan vIqawbe'lu' 'ach chaq tugh > maSovchuqchoH. 
>
> Hello.  My name is *notjISaH*.  Very many days > ago, I contributed
a few little
> messages to the mailing list.  Likely I am not > remembered, but
maybe soon we
> will come to know each other.

majQa'.  qabmey vIqawbe', 'ach naDev pIj ghaqwI'pu' vIqawlaH. 
qaqawchu'be' 'ach ponglIj vIghov.   

> tlhIngan-Hol  qeqqangbe'pu' DuSaQDaq > jIHaDtaHmo'. 
>
> I have not been willing to practice the
> *tlhIingan* language because at school I was > studying. 

You missed a prefix, {vIqeqqangbe'pu'}.  I'm not ordinarily too fussy
about where subordinate clauses go when TKD isn't explicit about their
placement, but with the locative, your sentence would sound a LOT
better with the subordinate clause first. 

DuSaQDaq jIHaDtaHmo' tlhIngan Hol vIqeqqangbe'pu'.

> DaH jIghIQtaH 'ej Holvam vIghojqa'.
> Now I'm on vacation
> and I resume learning this language.

Sabbe'law'pu' laHlIj.

> ..some questions came up while I was writing...
> 
> vIqawbe'lu'     -- if I use the passive-voice  > translation, it
seems to say "I
> am not remembered," which could refer to the 
> whole list like I wanted, but if
> I read it as "indefinite_subject (someone) does not 
> remember me," it seems to
> say either that one of the readers of the list doesn't > remember me
or that
> some random indefinite group does not, neither of 
> which is what I meant.  

An indefinite subject is just that, indefinite.  You aren't being
specific about who doesn't remember you.  I understood it as {naDev
vIqawbe'lu'} "I'm not remembered around here."  If you want to make it
clear who you expect not to remember you, then be explicit with cho-
or tu-.  English "I'm not remembered" has the same ambiguity, but no
one considers that you're really talking about whether your
kindergarten teacher remembers you.

> vIqawlu'be'     -- If be' negates the rest of the  
> sentence as a whole, this
> seems to work for "no one remembers me." / "I am > not remembered." 
If be' is
> supposed to modify lu'...umm, I guess I'm lost, so 
> that's the end of this. 

Negating the -lu' doesn't seem to make much sense, but the -be' suffix
turns up there sometimes.  Some people have elaborate theories as to
why. I think perhaps Klingons just toss the -be' on the end in those
cases when it doesn't make a lot of difference where it goes.

vIqawbe'lu' and vIqawlu'be' I read just the same.

> I guess recasting as tuqawbe'...."you (pl.) do not 
> remember me"....is more
> direct and makes more sense, but I just wanted to 
> learn how to use the -lu'
> suffix correctly in this situation.

You used it fine.  Daqawlu'law'.
 
> DaH jIghIQtaH 'ej Holvam vIghojqa'.      -- do 
> adverbials at the beginnings of
> compund sentences refer to both simple sentences, > or just the
first one?  If
> the "now" only affects the first sentence, does the > conjunction
still imply a
> relationship between the first and second halves, or > should I do
something to
> make the meaning more clear like repeating *DaH* > or using a type 9
clause?

This isn't explicitly addressed in canon, but I consider that you have
set the time of your sentence with the first {DaH} and will assume
that that time applies until you change it.  Klingon depends on
timestamps to express tense, as you know, so the timestamps have to
have some persistence.

> hey again, Qov, if you're still subjecting yaself to > fools like
meeeeee!!

reH jISaH 'ach tugh BG chu' Dajoy'laHlaw'.

> --notjISaH

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