tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Aug 19 09:24:36 2001
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RE: KBLC
- From: "Stauffer, Tad E (staufte7)" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KBLC
- Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 09:25:05 -0400
tamwI' said:
HIvqa' veqlargh
I apologize for not introducing myself initially, I was overly
excited at
finding such a group dedicated to such a language- most of the
languages I
study don't have such a resource.
Welcome to the list, tamwI'!
My name is Carter Cheney/ tamwI' jIpong'egh (I saw this construction
somewhere online, wouldn't it be correct? Like "me llamo ..." in
Spanish?)
In English (or Spanish), if we say "I call myself Robert", there are two
objects here - "myself" and "Robert". In Klingon, as far as we know, we
cannot have two different objects like this at once. Or, if it is possible,
we don't yet know how we would say it.
We can have the objects separately:
{jIpong'egh} "I name myself."
Here, the subject is "I", and the object (as indicated by the suffix
{-'egh}) is "myself".
When we use the suffix {-'egh}, the verb prefix has to indicate "no object".
So we use the prefix {jI-} ("I - no object") in this case.
{*Robert* vIpong} "I name Robert."
Here, the subject is "I", and the object is "Robert". So in this case, we
use the prefix {vI-} ("I - him/her").
Unfortunately, if we want to say "I name myself Robert", we don't know
whether or not to use {-'egh}, and we don't know whether to use {jI-} or
{vI-}.
So for now, the best solution is probably to use the noun {pong}, and say:
{*Robert* 'oH pongwIj'e'} "My name is Robert."
I love languages. I am trying to seriously learn Chinese, Mongolian
and
Tibetan, as well as exploring many others. What I lack in ability I
make up
for in obsessivness. My special hobby is syntax, but I am getting a
crash
course in phonotactics on the Elfing mailing list (Tolkien's
artlangs).
Until I found tlhingan I had never heard of conlanging. Anyway, I
am very
excited to have found a group of serious and accomplished linguists
to learn
from!
maj.
I learned on my last post that <yu'> can't be a noun, but I am a
little
confused. In Chinese a given word, with some exception, can be a
noun or a
verb: "ai" is both "love" and "to love". I got the impression from
the TKD
section on <ghach> that there is some ambiguity, and I had read on
the list
that MO knows chinese. I take it though that a given word is only
what it
is listed as, and only some words are given as both noun and verb.
Perhaps
someone could comment on the grammatical differences and
similarities btwn
Chinese and tlhIngan?
Although I don't know Chinese, tlhIngan Hol is not Chinese; it's tlhIngan
Hol. In some languages, we can verb nouns. However, in Klingon, we can't
assume that every noun can be a verb, and vice versa. In some cases, there
are similar verb/noun pairs (such as {leH} ("maintain") and {leH}
("maintenance")). However, if we start assuming that all verbs are nouns,
then we'll have problems communicating. If I use {laD} as a noun, what would
I be talking about? A chapter in a book? A reading assignment? A period of
time in which a student is supposed to read? If {laD} isn't defined in TKD
as a noun, then we shouldn't try to turn it into a noun.
The section in TKD regarding {-ghach} says that some words are both nouns
and verbs. We may find out that a noun is also a verb, or vice versa.
However, until we do find out, we can't use them interchangeably. Of course,
we can still use the verb suffixes {-wI'} and {-ghach} to create nouns out
of verbs.
Another question that I have is how to say "among" in the
comparative sense:
he was the strongest among the Gauls? The best I could come up with
would
be <<ghaH HoS law' Hoch *Gaul HoS puS>>, what do you think?
You sentence here works fine for the meaning that you want. Literally,
you're saying "He is stronger than every Gaul."
Instead of {Hoch *Gaul*} ("every Gaul"), you could also say {latlh
*Gaul*pu'} ("other Gauls"). That is:
{ghaH HoS law' latlh *Gaul*pu' HoS puS.} "He is stronger than the other
Gauls."
Qapla'!
- taD