tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Aug 17 20:11:35 1999
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Re: Testing something...
ja' "Gintaka" <[email protected]>:
>Please tell me if you understand a word i am about to say:
I understood every single word you said. Unfortunately, they were not
put together into a comprehensible Klingon sentence. They were merely
dropped in, word for word, where an approximately equivalent English
word would be in an English message. The {ghIj qet jaghmeyjaj!} at the
end is understandable as an archaic idiom, even though it too fails to
obey conventional Klingon grammar.
Klingon is not a code for English. That's why you don't find convenient
translations for the words "of" and "the", or many other trivial words
that English grammar uses. Klingon has specific grammatical tools that
don't match up exactly with other languages' features, and it lacks some
tools that are very prevalent in other languages. It is a true language,
and that's what makes it such fun to play with.
If you want to speak grammatical Klingon and be understood by others who
know the language, you *must* pay attention to how the words go together.
The entire first half of The Klingon Dictionary is a description of the
grammar, and it is absolutely essential reading for anyone who is serious
about learning the language.
vaj paq yIje' 'ej yIlaD. Dayajbe'chugh, ghoyu'. Get it and read it, and
ask if anything doesn't make sense.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh