tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 08 18:38:06 2001

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RE: Another newbie, and Monty Klingon's Flying Circus




Uli said:

	After I must have been boring the good people at
alt.startrek.klingon to 
	tears with my requests for help in Klingon grammar, I've finally
heeded 
	their advice and subscribed to this newsgroup... 

	So hi to all, and please be gentle with me. 

	Erm. Introductions? All right, I'll try to keep it short. 
	My name is Ulrich (Uli), I'm 25 and study English and German at
Tuebingen 
	University in Germany. I've dabbled in tlhIngan Hol for quite some
time 
	now, but never really very seriously. 
	[...]

Welcome to the list, Uli! I'm taD, the current Beginner's Grammarian. It's
my job to help beginners here with Klingon. You can add the letters "KLBC"
to your subject line whenever you want me to check your work, or if you have
a question about how to say something in Klingon. If possible, you should
also include what you were trying to say, in English. This will make it
easier for me to make sure that you say what you are trying to say.

Since you're in Europe, you may want to consider going to the qep'a' - the
annual meeting of the Klingon Language Institute. Usually the qep'a' is held
in the United States (typically in Philadelphia). This year, however, it is
being held in Belgium, this August. So you might want to take this
opportunity to meet other Klingon speakers, without having to fly half-way
across the world. Although some people there will be skilled with the
language, beginners are certainly welcome and encouraged to go also. For
more information on the qep'a', you can visit:
/stuff/qepa.html


	[...]
	I'm still very much a beginner, so I may write here often with 
	questions that may seem a little stupid or obvious to the more
experienced 
	among you. 

	If that's going to bother you, I can also put my questions up at my
web 
	page so the list isn't being flooded, and those of a charitable 
	inclination can go to my page and have a look. Which way is usually 
	preferred in here? 

If you have a question that you would like the Beginner's Grammarian to
answer, you can include the letters "KLBC" in your subject line. This way,
the Beginner's Grammarian can respond to your question first, so that there
aren't 20 conflicting answers to a single question. It also lets others know
that it's a beginner question, so they can either read it or skip over it.

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions list at
http://www.bigfoot.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm which may answer some of
your questions.


	Speaking of my web page, I just put my first big translation attempt
up 
	there. Monty Python fans may know it... it's the short "Gumby Brain 
	Specialist" sketch from "Flying Circus". If you can spare the time,
please 
	go have a look at it and tell me what I did wrong. [...]

If you have something that you would like corrected and commented on, you
can post it here (with KLBC as part of the subject line). It's probably a
good idea to send short & manageable messages, until you're more comfortable
with the language. This way, you aren't overwelmed with lots of comments &
corrections all at once, and can gradually work up to more complex
sentences.
Although beginners to the Klingon language often want to translate something
(for some reason, Monty Python seems to be a favorite), this isn't
necessarily the best approach. As you've probably found out already, the
Klingon vocabulary that we have is limited. Qov has suggested that a good
exercise for beginners is to describe your favorite Star Trek episode. There
should be enough vocabulary in Klingon for this (since we have words for
"phaser" and "starship", but not for "parrot").
You shouldn't translate the entire episode line for line; instead, write
your own sentences to describe the episode, so that we would be able to
figure out which it is.
An example, which could be written in Klingon, would be:

Aliens kidnap the captain.
They kidnap him for an experiment.
He meets 3 prisoners.
The prisoners cannot escape.
The door is locked.
The prisoners do not see the aliens.
Where are the kidnappers?

On the captain's ship, a counterfeit captain commands.
He confuses the crew.
He mis-commands.

One prisoner is suspicious.
The captain doesn't trust her.
The prisoner is an alien.
The captain discovers this secret.
Their experiment has failed.
The aliens free the prisoners.


- taD



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