tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 25 22:49:07 2001
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RE: KLBC: Turning a verb into a noun
This has already been answered well, covering most aspects of the question,
but just to push in one direction not much described, the main problem with
{-ghach} is that is it so attractive to English speakers because English has
so much more focus on nouns than Klingon does and Klingon has so much more
focus on verbs. If you want to learn to speak Klingon well, one of the first
tasks is to think differently about how to express things.
If I'm speaking English and I answer a telephone to discover the person
wants to talk to someone else in the room, I'll hold out the telephone
receiver to the person and say, "Telephone." They will know what I mean.
If the same thing happens and we are speaking Klingon, I'll hold out the
receiver and say, {DarI'lu'.}
I would not, in English, say, "Someone is calling you." That would be a
weird thing to say in English to get someone to take the receiver from my
hand and begin a telephone conversation. I similarly would not yell {ghogh
HablI'!} to a person in Klingon. If someone said that to me, I'd naturally
answer, {HIja'. ghogh HablI' 'oHba'. qatlh chonuQ?}
Similarly, if someone held out a telephone and yelled at me, "Someone is
calling you," I might very naturally look around and ask, "Where?" For all I
know, this person was engaged in a telephone call with someone and is just
using the receiver to get my attention, then they will resume the telephone
call.
English sentences get most of their meaning from the nouns. Klingon
sentences get most of their meaning from the verbs. That's why in English,
we have so many verb suffixes that turn verbs into
nouns: -tion, -ness, -ing, -er... while in Klingon the nouns get five types
of suffixes and verbs get 10 (including rovers) and only two suffixes of the
same type turn verbs into nouns: -wI' and -ghach.
Usually, if you are tempted to use -ghach, you are thinking in English and
translating word for word. Sometimes, and those times are quite rare and
beautiful, {-ghach} is simply the best way to express a thought. The thing
is, you'll recognize those times. The are radiant. If you don't think a use
you are about to make of {-ghach} is radiant, then you are probably just
being lazy and translating badly.
charghwI'
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonas Karlsson [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 7:54 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: KLBC: Turning a verb into a noun
>
>
> "or we could use the unpopular -ghach. But -ghach wants to have another
> suffix used with it. This is covered in TKD p176. Perhaps in
> this case we
> could the suffix -chu' with it. Qongchu'ghach (a thorough state
> of sleep).
> potlh Qongchu'ghach
>
> But don't get carried away with -ghach."
>
> By the way, why is {-ghach} unpopular? Is it because you are forced to use
> it with a suffix, or some other reason?
>
> - Jonas
>