tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 28 17:48:04 2000
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RE: KLBC some practice sentences
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC some practice sentences
- Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 18:49:51 -0700
jatlh J:
> mu'tlheghmeyHey qangeH
>
> I send you some possible sentences.
'ej mu'tlheghmeyna' vIHev.
> be'Hom ghaHtaHvIS lurSa''e' tIqa' vIghro'Daj joy'pu'.
> When Lursa was a little girl, she tortured her tika cat.
It's great up until the <-pu'>. The <-pu'> means the action is completed,
but with the <-taHvIS> you're talking about when the action happened, so it
couldn't be completed. Just remove the <-pu'> and everything works just
fine.
> ramvam wISay'moH bIvumbogh Qulpa'.
> Tonight we will clean the lab where you work.
<Qulpa'> is good for lab, but the rest of the sentence has some problems.
One of them is rather difficult - it's the famous "ship in which I fled"
problem. Klingon really has no easy way to say this, but then a lot of other
languages don't either. It's pretty easy to say "We will clean the equipment
you use" or "... the lab you destroyed", but it's quite difficult to say
"... the lab where you work" (or "... the lab in which you work"). I'd
suggest you just avoid the issue and rephrase it:
DaHjaj ram Qulpa' Dalo'bogh wISay'moH.
> bIS'ubDaq Duy' ghaj 'unvetlh
> That pot has a defect in the bottom.
In English, we commonly use "have" to describe things or talk about
locations:
I have brown hair
My house has a tree in front
Klingon generally doesn't use <ghaj> for these sorts of things:
Doq jIbwIj
juHwIj tlhopDaq Sor tu'lu'
If you want to say the bottom is defective, then say that:
Duy' 'un bIS'ub - The pot's bottom is defective
If there is a specific defect, then say that:
'un bIS'ubDaq Duy' tu'lu' - There is a defect in the pot's bottom
> toQtaH wejmaH cheb ngI' be'etor.
> Dressed, B'Etor weighs 30 cheb.
I am sure you meant <tuQ> rather than <toQ>. You also need a type nine
suffix on <tuQ> - otherwise the sentences has two main verbs. You probably
want <-vIS> here, although <-chugh> would work as well. Finally, when
repeating a subject, it's usually best to put it after the first verb rather
than the second.
tuQtaHvIS be'etor, wejmaH cheb ngI'.
> SoSnI juHDajDaq maghoSmeH, bIQtIq DungDaq mapuv
> 'ej ngem mavegh.
> We fly over the river and go through the woods to go
> to grandmother's house.
The possessive suffix on <juH> is redundant - you're saying "Grandmother's
her house".
I think <leng> or <jaH> would be better than <ghoS> here. Also, for verbs
like <leng> or <ghoS> or <jaH>, the object of the verb is the destination
(or possibly the path for <ghoS>), and <-Daq> is generally not used. We knew
this all along about <ghoS>, but only recently found out it also applied to
<jaH>, <leng>, and a bunch of other words. So the first part would be:
SoSnI' juH wIjaHmeH,
The rest is almost perfect, but <vegh> doesn't quite work. Okrand gave us
this word at qep'a' loSDIch, and he basically restricted it to things like
doors and tunnels. He specifically said that <ngem vegh> would not make
sense.
> 'ar vIDIl qutluchvam.
> How much is this kut'luch?
<'ar> is a strange word. It goes after the noun it modifies, and it can't
(as far as we know) stand alone in formal, correct Klingon. You can't say
"How much do you want?"; you have to say "How much water do you want?" or
"How much qagh do you want?".
The word <DIl> means "pay for", and it really doesn't have a simple way to
work the amount of payment into the sentence. You can say <qutluch vIDIl> -
"I paid for the kut'luch" - but not <vagh DarSeq vIDIl> - "I paid 5 darseks
(for something)". How much you paid (or need to pay) needs to be in a
seperate clause. Putting <-meH> on the <DIl> often works well in this
situation:
qutluchvam vIDIlmeH, Huch 'ar qanobnIS? - In order that I pay for this
kut'luch, how much money do I need to give you?
Of course, as the Conversational Klingon audiotape points out, a common way
to do this is to point at the object and just say <'ar?>. This is clipped
Klingon rather than formal Klingon, of course.
> 'Iv QorwaghwIj boghorpu'
> Which one of you broke my window?
Unlike English, questions in Klingon use exactly the same sentence order as
regular statements. Since <'Iv> is the subject of <ghor>, it has to go at
the end.
QorwaghwIj ghorpu' 'Iv? - Who broke my window?
Also, <'Iv> is "who", and doesn't really work well for "which one (of you)".
There's not really a way to say that in Klingon; if you really want to
include this idea (instead of just "Who broke my window?"), you'll have to
rephrase it a bit.
> nuq yIloy.
> Guess what?
"Guess what" is an English idiom (and probably just American English) that
doesn't really make sense in Klingon. If you walked up to a Japanese person,
who had learned excellent English in school but never travelled in the US,
and said "Guess what", he would probably just stare at you.
I think "Guess what" is probably most often said when someone has good news,
but wants the other person to build up some anticipation before hearing it.
Klingons would probably find this to be very strange, and would just state
the matter directly.
> Qe'HomDaq megh vISop.
> I eat lunch in a small restaurant.
A small restraunt would be a <Qe' mach>. I would expect a <Qe'Hom> to be
something like a hot dog cart or a sandwich stand - something that serves
food, but is not a real restaurant. Note also that we have <Do Qe'> -
literally "velocity restaurant" - for the Klingon equivalent of fast food.
> Sepvo' mej
> He leaves the region.
maj.
> lojmItDaq QamtaHvIS puqpu' vIbej.
> I watch the children while standing at the door.
lojmItDaq QamtaHvIS 'Iv? If you're standing at the door (as your English
implies), then it should be <jIQamtaHvIS>. If it's the children, then this
is fine.
> paSloghwIjmo' qamaw
> I offend you because of my socks.
maj.
> jIHvaD qa'vIn ngev.
> She sells coffee to me.
maj.
> pIn ghaHqu'
> He is the boss.
Ooh, cool. I like the <-qu'> on <ghaH>.
> roplI' romuluSngan, HoHbej rop.
> The Romulan is sick, the disease will certainly kill him.
maj.
> roppu' romuluSngan 'ach Heghbe'.
> The Romulan was sick but he did not die.
Do'Ha'. ('ach Do'ba' romuluSngan)
> not ropbe'qu' romuluSngan. 'oHqu' ngebchu'pu'.
> The Romulan was never sick! He was faking it!
net pIH jay'!
I think you have a double negative here. <ropbe'qu'> is "Very not sick", and
the <not> means "He was never very not sick". I think just <not rop
romuluSngan> means what you want, though.
The "faking it" part doesn't work very well. "Faking it" is another English
idiom, and I think something more direct like <nutojqu'> - "He was tricking
us!" - would make more sense.
> rIQ'egh puq
> The child injured himself.
<rIQ> is "be injured"; <rIQmoH> is "injure", so you need to say <rIQ'eghmoH
puq>.
> jav 'uj juch chob'a'.
> The main corridor is six uj wide.
I'm not sure <chob'a'> works for "main corridor", especially if it's only
six udges wide. To add <-'a'>, the noun has to be "bigger, more important,
or more powerful" than the regular noun, and I don't know if just being
designated the "main" corridor is enough of a distinction for this. I've
often wished for a word meaning "main" or "primary" or something like that,
but we don't have one.
> parmaqqaywI'Daq jaHmeH lupwI' vIlIt.
> I get on the bus to go to my boyfriend.
We've recently found out that with <jaH>, the destination is usually the
object of the verb, so "I go to my boyfriend" would be <parmaqqaywI' vIjaH>.
You also really do need the verb prefix on <jaH>.
> chatlhwIjDaq 'oH qoghlI''e'.
> Your ear is in my soup.
chatlhlIjDaq 'oHtaH'a' je nachwIj'e'? jISIv neH.
And an ear is not a being capable of using language, so it's <qoghlIj>, not
<qoghlI'>.
> bIlup'eghpa' may'Duj ngeQ toQDuj.
> The bird of prey will collide with the battlecruiser
> before you can transport yourself.
If it's the magical Star Trek kind of transport you're talking about, then
the proper word is <Qol> - "beam away", rather than <lup>. See also <jol> -
"beam aboard (v)" and "transporter beam (n)".
> cha'vatlh DeQmey boSmeH <<veHjaH>> vIjuS.
> In order to collect 200 credits, I pass "go".
You need a <vI-> on <boS>. I also don't know what Klingons would call "Go";
<veHjaH> seems a little strange.
> burgh quD 'ey law' 'un quD 'ey puS.
> Stomach quD is better than pot quD.
net Sov, net Sov.
pagh
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