tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 19 14:59:37 1999

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RE: Gintaka Son Of Kovu

jatlh Gintaka:

> This is in English grammer
The point was to work on *Klingon* grammar.

> I see the starship: jIH legh 'ejDo'
This is a perfectly good Klingon sentence. Unfortunately, it means "The
starship sees the monitor". Let's try again. . .

Klingon sentence order is pretty simple: object-verb-subject. This means
that the thing the action is done to (the object) goes first, followed by
the action itself (the verb), followed by the thing doing the action (the
subject). So just applying this, we get something that is almost correct:

'ejDo' legh jIH.

We're not finished yet, though. Every verb in Klingon needs a prefix, which
relates to the number and person of both the subject and object. This is
just like conjugating a verb in a Romance language (and, to a lesser extent,
in English). The prefix for a first person singular (I) subject and a third
person singular (him/her/it) object is <vI->. Adding the prefix to the verb,
we get:

'ejDo' vIlegh jIH.

Finally, pronouns like <jIH> are almost always optional in Klingon, and are
usually dropped:

'ejDo' vIlegh.

> The officer stole the book: 'utlh paq

You've got the words for "officer" and "book" here, but no verb for "stole".
The verb <nIH> means "steal". You'll need a verb prefix for <nIH>. The
correct prefix for a third person singular (he/she/it) subject (the officer)
and a third person singular (him/her/it) object (the book) is what we call
the "null prefix" - no prefix at all.

Also, while both <yaS> and <'utlh> mean "officer", <'utlh> is a little
different. We found out recently that <'utlh> refers to an officer who has
managed to live to retirement (not a common feat among Klingons). The
regular, everyday sort of officer is <yaS>. Putting this into an
object-verb-subject sentence, you get:

paq nIH yaS.


> You are not hungry: bI be' ghung

This was much closer. You got the verb prefix <bI-> right - second person
singular (you) subject and no object. You also got the verb suffix <-be'>
right. You just need to put everything in the right place. The prefix goes
on the front of the verb, and the suffix goes on the end. Since there is
only one suffix, there is no confusion.

bIghungbe'.


> I will be getting the KLD soon. 3-7 days. 

maj.

Based on these examples, try to translate the Klingon sentences I sent.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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