tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 04 01:59:17 2002
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Re: KLBC: Some Sentences of Varying Difficulty
ghItlh maQ:
>I doubt there's Klingon for "Thank you", so...Thank you.
You're partially right. As a matter of fact, klingons don't *say* "thank you", but there still is an
expression to show gratitude. It's the word {tlho'}. As a noun, it is "appreciation, gratitude", and
as a verb it means "thank". So, to say that you are "grateful", you can say {qatlho'} "I thank you".
[In some books, you might discover *kd'lo* or something similar]. If you thank more than one person,
you use the according prefix: {Satlho'}
But we all know that Klingons don't use these kind of words, and if they do, it's not like terrans do.
Terrans say "thank you" for every little move that someone does. Klingons might use this maybe once in
their life, to show *real* appreciation; maybe the emperor says this to a brave warrior after he saved
the galaxy or so.
But it's never used in daily speech.
>What I really wanted to say originally was, "everything around it" or "in
>its vicinity". But the locatives for "hereabouts", "thereabouts", and
>"everywhere" didn't seem to mesh well with a particular object. Perhaps you
>could explain.
I said what I said, because "the sky" is what you see when you look up from a planet (on earth, this
is blue with clouds and a sun).
You're right, the words we know, as {naDev, pa', Dat}, describe the location where something happens.
For your example, you can use the locative #5 noun suffix {-Daq}. Like {pa'} describes a "location
over there", the -Daq suffix describes the location of the noun it is attached to.
So {puyjaqDaq} can be "everywhere around the nova", or "at the nova", even "in the nova".
Or perhaps even better is the noun {retlh} "area beside, area next to", this excludes the nova:
{puyjaq retlhDaq}
"at the area next to the nova"
>va! I keep forgetting prefixes.
qay'be'. Everyone does once in a while.
>(And I can't find much on the relative
>intensity of curses...
The use of {va} is okay here :-)
>*nods* I should set about making some kind of list/thesaurus. This is a
>vocabulary problem.
This just needs time. You will find out pretty soon which words are used in what way.
But it's good to make lists of any kind. Like that, you will stay busy with the vocabulary, and
remember it better. But be careful with word-definitions. Don't make up your own. If we don't know how
a word is used, we just keep not knowing until Marc Okrand gives an example on how it is used.
>>>cha baHta' chunDabqoqvetlh!
>>>That so-called meteor has fired torpedoes!
>>Okay, this definitely makes no sense, but it is correct.
>:D Perhaps I need a term for "meteoroid" or "asteroid". I was thinking
[..]
>way, someone _thought_ the object was space junk and ignored it until it
>opened fire.
Ah, now I understand.
As DloraH suggested, nounsuffix #3 {-Hey} "apparent" works here. It's used when you are not sure about
what it is, but you think it could be.
>This was something I found standing alone in a related discussion on a
>different topic...4.2.5, Indefinite Subject markers. I'll look it over more
>carefully.
You can do that.
Most people usually forget it, because they have in mind that {tu'lu'} means "there is", but it means
literally "someone discovers". And if someone discovers many things, you need the prefix for "many
things discover someone" (they-him/it), since the suffix #5 {-lu'} turns that meaning around.
>I'm not surprised. I had been looking for something simultaneously Biblical
>and Klingon-sounding, just for kicks, but everything I found was at least
>this complicated.
In many cases, we need to recast. One sentence in english can be two or three in Klingon. Usually you
even need completely different vocabulary. When you get more into learning klingon, you will find out
that you can't just translate the words. Translate the *idea*. Think about what you want to say - like
a picture in your mind - and then try to think how a klingon would say that.
>I probably didn't read it carefully enough. I will read it again.
I don't remember how many times I've read TKD and KGT in the past seven years, and I still keep
finding new things! :-)
>maQ
Quvar
Beginners' Grammarian
ghojwI'pu'wI' vISaH