tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 12 05:36:18 2003

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Re: Um, hello & hello & KLBC

Tyler wrote:
>My birth name is Tyler Fisher, but on the net I'm more
>commonly known as Dr. Vorlon. I'm a big fan of
>Klingons, tlhIngan Hol, and Star Trek in general. I've
>been lurking around the KLI website for quite some
>time, and I finally decided to make my presence known.

   Greetings, and welcome to the list, Dr. Vorlon!
      I am Quvar, currently serving as ... -

Ronda wrote:
>Hello, my name is Ronda and I just recently began learning Klingon.  I have
>many resources thanks to my friend Eric.  Unfortunately, there is no one
>close by to practice with.

   Welcome to the group, Ronda!
      My name is Quvar, I am the list's ... -

Richard wrote:
>My Name is Richard Eggleston from Mansfield in the UK

   Hello, and welcome to the list, everybody!!
      I'm Quvar, 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.
      The lurkers probably know this system already, so I won't go too much into detail.

Two websites one must have seen:

The Klingon Language Institute
http://www.kli.org

This list's FAQ:
http://www.bigfoot.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm

That will answer many beginners' questions. (But you can ask me anyway, I'll tell you 
then where to look in the faq ;-)

>As you can tell I am doing literal translations, and I hope you can guide me 
>further.

Of course, it's my job here to help newbies, but many people on this list are certainly 
willing to guide you onto the right way of 
learning Klingon.
It's good to "just" write something. To join this group, it is not required to speak klingon 
fluently. Au contraire, mon capitain, this is 
made for beginners - it's the best start!
(and every single one of the "experts" on this list has started the same way: from zero)

Lurking might be interesting, but ... you can't quench your thirst while watching at a glas 
of water.

Now let's have a look at your first sentences.

>I have access to TKD

Good. That's the most important to start. 

>(I think that means " I am uneasy writing to this  esteemed group)
>jIbIt jIghItlh ghomneS

Okay, that's very well. But, as you've noted yourself already before, it's a very literal 
translation.
   {jIbIt}  "I'm nervous"
   {jIghItlh} "I write"
   {ghomneS}

About the verb suffix type 8 (I'll shorten this to v#8)  {-neS} "honorific":
- First, it's only used on verbs (it's a verb suffix), but you've used a noun {ghom} "group"
- Second, it's almost never used by klingons. So you won't see it on this list very often.

Klingons are not unpolite, but they are not so excessively polite as Terrans. There is no 
thank you, etc. (I'll keep it short :-) The suffix 
{-neS} is not just for politeness, it's "honorific". And even if you do "esteem" this group 
so much, I'd say {-neS} is used when you 
talk to your boss, admiral, president, king, or god.

Back to the topic: If you read section 4.4 of TKD about Adjectives, you might find a way 
to say "honoured group"
The verb for "be honored" is {quv}, located in the addendum of TKD.

>qalugh jIQagh
>((That means " You will correct my errors)

Yeah, now it's getting difficult  ;-)

You see the prefix {qa-}? It means "I (do something to) you"
Check that chart again.

I think I need to go back to the beginning, ... chapter 6.1. Yes, sounds weird, but here we 
see the basic structure of a klingon sentence:

    OBJECT--VERB--SUBJECT

This is how you can "build" a sentence:
 Object - "my errors"
 Verb - "you correct them" 
      (them=my errors)
 Subject - "you"
       "you" is already in the prefix, so we don't mention the subject explicitely. You could 
put a name in there for instance, or a 
pronoun. So, our sentence is actually made of two parts: OBJECT--VERB

The OBJECT is made of a noun with a suffix: 
    my+errors = {Qagh} + {-wIj} = {QaghwIj}
    You can read section 3.3.4. about possession.

The VERB might look a bit tricky first. There is only a verb "be correct", that's a 
difference to "correct something". When you 
"correct" a thing, then you make it "be correct". Can you follow?
There is a nice klingon suffix for this: v#4 {-moH}  "cause". You can attach it to the verb 
{lugh} "be correct" and we get {lughmoH} 
which means "cause to be correct".
And /what/ do I correct? The errors. Now we need the chart in section 4.1.1 again. We 
can find an appropriate prefix for "you-them": 
{Da-}. As a PRE-fix it PRE-cedes the verb: {Da-} + {lughmoH} = {DalughmoH}

And now?!

Now, we scroll back to: OBJECT--VERB
You just need to put together what we found above:

  {QaghwIj DalughmoH}
  "You correct my mistakes"
  [my-mistakes, you-them correct]

I explained every single step, because I don't know yet how much klingon you know so 
far. Once you're used to it, the whole above 
process will be a matter of a second.
But you had a good start, I hope you will write more of this. Don't be afraid to do 
mistakes, I promise that you'll find some :-)

Quvar
Beginners' Grammarian
  ghojwI'pu'wI' vISaH

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