tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 29 12:23:30 1999
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RE: thanx everybody from a very rank,rank beginer
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: thanx everybody from a very rank,rank beginer
- Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 12:24:23 -0700
Good to see you on the list, Mike. I'm glad you had a good time at qep'a',
and look forward to seeing you again next year. I'm pagh, and I am the
current Beginners' Grammarian for the list. It's my job to help beginners
learn Klingon. Whenever you have a post you want help with, mark it for my
attention with a KLBC in the subject line.
jatlh trIQjoH:
> I would like to thank everyone who attended this year's qepa',
> for the patience you all had with this rank beginer. I had a
> great time and met some great people. I will do my best to be
> able to understand and jatlh coherantly for next year's qepa'.
> ghaj magQa' DIS vIneH !
> Duuuuhhhh......ghaj magQa' DIS SuHoch vIneH !
What you're trying to say here is "Have a good year". The problem is that
English uses the word "have" in a whole lot of strange ways that don't work
in Klingon. I can "have" a book in Klingon, but I can't "have" a year.
Probably the best way to translate this is the verb <SIQ> - "endure". It
sounds a bit strange, but if you think about it, it fits right in with the
Klingon point of view. Also, instead of saying "good year", it would
probably make more sense to Klingons if you said something about enduring
the year honorably.
So to construct the sentence, start with the object (the thing that the
action is done to), which is the year, and then put in the verb with the
appropriate prefix: <DIS boSIQ>. You were on the right track with the you
(plural) <Su-> prefix, but the prefix also has to match the object, so you
need <bo->. Since the subject is a pronoun (y'all), you don't need to
include it.
The "honorably" part is done by adding the word <batlh> to the beginning of
the sentence: <batlh DIS boSIQ>. The list bit, for which you had <vIneH> is
fine, but Klingon grammar has a built in tool for this: the suffix <-jaj>.
You'll need to look in the appendix at the back of the dictionary for this
one, but it's there. It is used to express a wish or a toast, and that's
exactly what you are doing here. Just stick it on the end of the verb, and
you get:
batlh DIS boSIQjaj!
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian
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