Re: first post

[Ed Heil <edheil@postmark.net>]

Ah, I added that second -wIj incautiously, as an afterthought, without
looking it up (and therefore noticing the distinction).  Silly me.  My
original sentence just ended in "bang", so I'll change it back to
that. :)



Ed Heil -------------------------------- edheil@postmark.net
             "QuchwIj Dayachqang'a' bang-wIj?"
        (KHOOCH-widge da-YATCH-kang-a BANG-widge?)
       Klingon for "Want to stroke my forehead, babe?"
------------------------------------------------------------

Steven Boozer wrote:

> Ed Heil wrote:
> 
> : As my first post to the Hol list, not having yet defined a Klingon
> : personality or learned very much, may I ask the experienced listemes
> : to take a look at my first Klingon sentence (below, in sig) and point
> : out any mistakes I may have made?
>  
> Welcome to the list, Ed.  Our Beginning Grammarian, pagh, will no doubt
> respond
> too, but as he's been fairly busy for the last couple of weeks I thought I
> would step in.  I remember how anxious I was for feedback after my first
> tlhIngan Hol post.
>  
> :              "QuchwIj Dayachqang'a' bang-wIj?"
> :        Klingon for "Want to stroke my forehead, babe?"
> 
> "Are you willing to stroke my forehead, my love?"  
> 
> This is pretty good, except for the last word.  {-wIj}, without the hyphen,
is
> used only for those items incapable of using language: i.e. things
(including
> animals), like foreheads.  Use {-wI'} for people.  Klingons are very touchy
> about this and will take offence if you refer to them as a thing.  Many
> beginners are confused by this distinction at first; Okrand's explanation
in
> TKD could have been a bit clearer.  In fact, if you want to keep the
> colloquial
> tone of "babe", omit the possessive suffix entirely:
> 
>   QuchwIj Dayachqang'a', bang?
> 
> Okrand did just this in one of the Klingon sentences he provided for the
> British television magazine, Radio Times:
> 
>   HIchop, bang.
>   Give us a kiss, love. ("Bite me, love.")
> 
> Finally for the sake of completeness, a more literal translation of the
> English
> "do you want to ..." would be: 
> 
>   QuchwIj Dayach DaneH'a', bangwI'?
>   Do you want to stroke my forehead, my love?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Voragh                       
> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons 
>