tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 22 16:00:19 1999
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RE: KLBC Phrases
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC Phrases
- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 17:01:44 -0700
jatlh Dave:
> nuqneH
>
> How's the grammer on these phrases ?
>
> mu'tay' tlhIngan Hol mach.
Right words; wrong order. Since there is no object, the verb - <mach> - goes
first, followed by the subject. The subject is "the Klingon language's
vocabulary" or "the vocabulary of the Klingon language". This sort of thing
is done in Klingon by just putting the nouns together: <tlhIngan Hol
mu'tay'>.
mach tlhIngan Hol mu'tay'.
> The Klingon Language has a small vocabulary.
>
> (I'm assuming mu'tay'Hom wouldn't really be
> what I'm looking for as "small vocabulary" ?)
Correct.
> jatlh tlhIngan Hol Qatlh.
>
> Speaking the Klingon Language is difficult.
Klingon doesn't really have gerunds(?) or infinitives like English does, so
"Speaking Klingon is difficult" is not easy to translate. We have an example
from Star Trek V, which I think is <qIpmeH Qatlh'a'?> - "[Is it] difficult
to hit?", and we can apply the same thing to your example.
jatlhmeH Qatlh tlhIngan Hol - The Klingon language is difficult to speak.
> mu'tlhegh chen Qatlh.
>
> Forming sentences is hard
This is another hard one. A common way to translate this is to say "The task
of forming sentences is hard". "The task of forming sentences" is fairly
easy to translate into Klingon, once again using a <-meH> clause: <mu'tlhegh
chenmoHmeH Qu'>. With that, all you need to do is add the verb at the
beginning (before the subject):
Qatlh mu'tlhegh chenmoHmeH Qu'.
> BTW, what would Latin for Klingon be? Clinonus -a -um ?
> ( difficilis mihi linguam Clinonam dicire est - lingua Romana
> facilis.)
DaH qaQaHlaHbe'. Sabpu' Latin Hol laHwIj.
Can't help you there. My Latin is quite rusty.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian
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