tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 28 12:52:21 1999
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Re: KLBC : revised bang bom mu'
jIja'pu':
>Qugh 'oH parmaq'e' 'e' DaHarlaw'. :-P
>
>va, Do'Ha' Qugh mojlaHbej. Do' QI'tu' rurlaH je.
>QI'tu' vImaSmo', parmaqqaywI' vIvuvqang 'ej parmaqwIj vItoy'rup.
ja' [email protected]:
>Many apologise, but i can't seem to translate this properly, could I have some
>help, pagh, errr, anyone ? I have sort of stopped reading things and have
>been writting to much
Nic, your problem is a simple one. You need to observe that in general,
a Klingon word consists of only one part that is in the dictionary, and
everything else about it is a prefix and/or suffixes. You also need to
be able to use the dictionary to find the rare multiple-syllable words.
Just this once, here's an extremely detailed breakdown of what I said.
>Qugh 'oH parmaq'e' 'e' DaHarlaw'. :-P
Qugh : disaster (noun)
'oH : it (pronoun), used in the "it is" sense here (see TKD 6.3)
parmaq : romantic/aggressive love (noun)
-'e' : topic marker (noun suffix), required by the "it is" usage
'e' : that, previous topic (pronoun) (see TKD 6.2.5)
Da- : you [do] it (verb prefix)
Har : believe (verb)
-law' : apparently (verb suffix)
"You seem to believe that romantic/agressive love is a disaster."
>va, Do'Ha' Qugh mojlaHbej. Do' QI'tu' rurlaH je.
va : mild invective (exclamation)
Do'Ha' : unfortunately (adverbial)
Qugh : disaster (noun)
moj : become (verb)
-laH : can (verb suffix)
-bej : certainly (verb suffix)
"Dang, unfortunately it certainly can become a disaster."
Do' : fortunately (adverb)
QI'tu' : Paradise (noun)
rur : resemble (verb)
-laH : can (verb suffix)
je : and (noun conjunction), meaning "also" or "too" when it follows a verb
"Fortunately, it can resemble Paradise too."
>QI'tu' vImaSmo', parmaqqaywI' vIvuvqang 'ej parmaqwIj vItoy'rup.
QI'tu' : Paradise (noun)
vI- : I [do] it (verb prefix)
maS : prefer (verb)
-mo' : because (verb suffix)
parmaqqay : romantic partner (noun)
-wI' : my (capable of speech) (noun suffix)
vI- : I [do] him/her (verb prefix)
vuv : respect (verb)
-qang : willing (verb suffix)
'ej : and (sentence conjunction)
parmaq : romantic/aggressive love (noun)
-wIj : my (incapable of speech) (noun suffix)
vI- : I [do] it (verb prefix)
toy' : serve (verb)
-rup : ready, prepared (verb suffix)
"Because I prefer Paradise, I am willing to respect my romantic partner
and I am prepared to serve my romantic/agressive love."
>Please, no one laugh, i understand that i must have got the wrong end of the
>batleth or something. How can you tell the root peice of the word, rather
>than just when the prefixes and suffixes start and stop, do i just have to
>learn them all, or what ? HEELP
I must apologize. I *did* laugh -- loudly -- when I saw {QI'tu' vImaSmo'}
translated as "due to him\her\it military discovery on the moon" instead of
as "because I prefer Paradise."
When I started, it took me weeks to realize that {mu'tlhegh} wasn't meant
as "he ropes me". You *do* have to learn all the affixes, or at least the
common ones. It helps to notice that the verb prefixes are made up of a
single consonant followed by a single vowel. There is never more than one
prefix on a verb, and there are *no* noun prefixes. You shouldn't see any
"complex" verbs made up of more than one part, so the suffixes are always
right after the root verb. There are complex nouns, so you'll have to be
able to recognize the noun suffixes in order to see that {nuvpu'} usually
means "people" and not "person-phaser", and {taghDu'} is "lungs" instead
of "lung-farm".
The quickest way to learn things is to read every piece of well-written
Klingon text you can find and force yourself to translate it until you
have something that makes perfect sense. You will quickly come to see
the common patterns and you'll remember them when you encounter them the
next time. Noun and verb vocabulary is a secondary issue, with grammar
and affixes and chuvmey being the framework into which the other words
fit, but if you don't rely on a computerized translator program, you'll
learn the vocabulary almost automatically.
-- ghunchu'wI'