tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 09 15:36:16 2005

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Re: A whole 'nother kettle of fish...

QeS lagh ([email protected])



ja'pu' juDmoS:
>luq. vIta'. 'ach vIta' 'e' chotlhob 'e' yIqaw !

vIqawbej. {{:P

>jIHvaD ghoplIj Danob (you give your hand to me)

pup.

A tip: the "prefix trick" also works here. When the direct object of a verb 
is explicit, and the benefactive object (with {-vaD} is not third person, 
you can use the pronoun prefix to indicate the {-vaD} object rather than the 
direct object: {ghoplIj qanob} "you give me your hand" (= "you give your 
hand to me"). Nevertheless, your version is still perfect Klingon, and it 
does fit the meter of the song better.

>vaj jIHvaD bIjatlh (and then you speak to me) (no word for hello, or greet)

maj.

>jIjang 'e' Qatlh 'oH (It is difficult for me to answer)

Okay, this is a pretty common error. {Qatlh} is a stative verb, and 
therefore doesn't take an object. Hence, it can't use {'e'}, which can 
*only* appear as an object (see TKD section 5.1). You may have to recast 
this one. See if you can come up with a good way of recasting "I can hardly 
speak": I have one in mind, but I don't want to influence your answer. {{:)

>nom vIHmo' tIqwIj  (because my heart moves very fast)

maj. It has been pointed out that {vIH} applies to any sort of movement, so 
it works fine here.

>choSuvchu' 'e' DaHar 'e' luyajbej vay' (anyone can definitely understand 
>that you think that you perfectly know me)

Again, I would argue that {vay'}, being basically indefinite, wouldn't use a 
plural verb prefix (like {pagh}). Other than that, this is fine. We don't 
have any canon examples of using multiple instances of {'e'} like this, but 
I certainly use it and don't see why it should be a problem.

>'ach choSuvchu?be? (But you don't perfectly know me.)

err... {Sov} is "to know"; {Suv} means "to fight". {{:) Other than that, 
it's pretty good. Stylistically, I'd suggest inverting {-be'} and {-chu'}, 
though: {choSovbe'chu'} "you clearly don't know me" preserves the original 
sense a little better than {choSovchu'be'} "it's unclear that you know me".

>How'm I doin' so far?

Very well! And this is one of my favourite songs. {{:) There are a couple of 
small errors, but nothing you shouldn't be able to fix pretty quickly. 
majQa'!

Savan,

QeS lagh
taghwI' pabpo' / Beginners' Grammarian


not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
     - Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh

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