tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 20 18:07:19 1998
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RE:
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE:
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 19:04:45 -0700
Welcome to the list, Patrick. My name is pagh, and I am the current
Beginners' Grammarian for the list. It's my job to help beginners learn
Klingon. Whenever you have a post you want help with, mark it for my
attention by putting the letters KLBC in the subject line.
lab Patrick Masterson:
>
> Savan.
>
> Hello. I had a few questions.
>
> wa'. Can you use questions as sentences for use with 'e'?
> as in the following:
> qatlh nuch HoH yaS 'e' vISov. (I know why the officer killed the
> coward.)
Wow. Quite a choice for a first question. There has been a lot of debate on
this issue, and positions range from Captain Krankor's unequivocal "yes,
what's the problem?" to charghwI''s vhement "no". Marc Okrand, who created
the language and is the only one who can say for sure, tends to be rather
evasive on the subject, but I believe he has indicated that it probably
doesn't work, and that he needs to think more on the subject.
In any case, it is best just to avoid it until we know for certain.
> cha'. What exactly is the proper use of the verb suffix -ghach?
> (I just use it to mean "-ness" when used with an adjective verb, like
> let "hard" - letghach "hardness"; and "act of" when used with verbs,
> like nuS "ridicule" - nuSghach "act of ridiculing. That's as much ive
> determined of its usage, from the addendum to tkd.)
>
> end
Another difficult question, although I can give you a better answer on this
one. As the addendum explains, the purpose of <-ghach> is to turn verbs
*with suffixes* into nouns. As a result, it cannot be used on a bare verb
stem without sounding "marked" (i.e. weird), so your examples of <letghach>
and <nuSghach> are not really valid.
The idea seems to be that if a bare verb were meant to be used as a noun, it
would already have a noun meaning (e.g. <naD> - "commend (v)" AND
"commendation (n)"). Otherwise, using the verb as a noun with <-ghach>
should sound strange. The reason <-ghach> exists is for those situations
when the verb has a suffix or two added, but still needs to be used as a
noun.
In general, though, it is best to avoid <-ghach> altogether. Klingon works
best as a language when describing things in terms of action - verbs. If you
need to turn lost of verbs into nouns with <-ghach>, you are probably stuck
on finding the Klingon expression that is closest to an English expression
you are thinking about rather than the idea behind the English. If you find
yourself needing to use <-ghach> more than a few times a year, you probably
need to examine your writing style to see why.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian