RE: KLBC - a really short story

["Andeen, Eric" <Eric.Andeen@Sequencia.com>]

jatlh Dave:

> HughwIj vIHuvmoH jIH
> (BTW, are pronouns necessary in Klingon, or can they 
> just be indicated with the verb?)

Pronouns are almost always unnecessary and are usually left out.

> tachDaq luba' tlhInganpu'. 

<tach> is not the object of <ba'>, so the prefix should be the null prefix
rather than <lu->.

> 'Iw HIq lutlhutlh tlhInganpu'.

maj.

> tachDaq 'el tera'ngan. tlhIngan Hol jatlhbe' ghah.

Typo - <ghaH>.

> {I wanted to say "he can't speak Klingon well", but "he can't speak
> Klingon" is the best I could do}

The best way to say this is <tlhIngan Hol jatlhlaHchu'be'>. It's a lot of
suffixes, but it gets the idea across pretty clearly.

> "nuqneH" jatlh.
> "'Iw vIneH." jatlh.
> "'Iw DaneH'a' SoH. 'Iw pInob maH!" lujatlh tlhInganpu'.

The words are fine, but I'd put a question mark after the question. Also, a
spoken quote is not the object of the verb <jatlh>; it's just something that
sits there. You should change the <lu-> prefix on <jatlh> to the null
prefix.

> nuHmey lel tlhInganpu'.
> 'IQ tera'ngan.

qatlh 'IQ?

> tera'ngan hoh tlhIngan.

Typo: <HoH>. Also, just to clarify, I would probably say <tera'ngan HoH wa'
tlhIngan>. If they all killed the terran rather than just one of them, you
should say <tera'ngan luHoH tlhInganpu'>, although you can drop the <-pu'>
if you want.

> 'Iw HIq lutlhutlh tlhInganpu'.

This is the perfect place for the verb suffix <qa'>.


Good story. This is *exactly* the sort of thing you should be doing at this
point.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

tlhIngan Hol Mailing List FAQ
http://www.bigfoot.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm