tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 10 22:28:27 2009

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Re: Yet another newbie!

Tracy Canfield ([email protected]) 

nuq "KLD" is a problem, because the subject is a noun.
If you have an English sentence along the lines of

X is/are Y,

and Y is a noun, then you need to do two things: you need to include the
appropriate third-person pronoun ('oH, chaH, bIH) and you need to mark X
with the topic marker 'e'.  (You can think of that pronoun as a verb, since
it takes verbal suffixes.  Or not.  It doesn't matter how you think of it as
long as you do it.)

So nuq 'oH "KLD"'e' is probably the minimum here.

I will leave -taH in lay'tel SIvten's capable hands, and just note that
continuous aspect isn't uncommon on "to be" in human languages - in French,
for example, which marks aspect (albeit just in the past tense).

2009/11/10 eric mead <[email protected]>

>
>
> > nuq 'oHtaH "KLD"'e'? rap'a' "TKD" "KLD" je?
> > lay'tel SIvten
>
>
> Can you explain to me 'oHtaH? It seems to me that the -taH ending gives
> this a meaning of continuously being something (or somewhere), which seems a
> bit much for the intended 'identity' meaning. (~"What is KLD being?" ?)
>
> I would have expected something like:   nuq "KLD"?
>
> Is this a common, productive construction in Klingon?
>
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> I'm a complete beginner, so please, if you would, explain this to me as if
> I know nothing :)
>
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>
> -ERIC
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> > Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:43:36 -0500
> > Subject: Re: Yet another newbie!
> > From: [email protected]
> > To: [email protected]
> >
> > nuq 'oHtaH "KLD"'e'? rap'a' "TKD" "KLD" je?
> > lay'tel SIvten
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:35 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > From: [email protected]
> > > To: [email protected]
> > > User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.19
> > > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > > Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
> > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> > > X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
> > > Importance: Normal
> > >
> > > tlhIngan Hol vIghoj vIneH!
> > >
> > > Here is another Swedish newbie. Thing is, there was a program on
> Swedish
> > > television about a month ago about artificial languages, and in
> particular
> > > Klingon. Interviews with Marc Okrand, Arika Okrent and notable Swedish
> > > Klingonists. And I got caught.
> > >
> > > So I have gotten KLD and downloaded {pojwI'}, which I'm using together
> > > with a flashcard program called Anki (tip to Jacob!) which is nice
> since
> > > you get to make your own cards and it uses a spaced repetition
> algorithm
> > > to show them to you suitably often.
> > >
> > > I wonder if anyone have good ideas for pronounciation training; I have
> > > used the descriptions, the recorded phrases at the KLI site and the
> Forvo
> > > site. And of course, I listen to {taH pagh taHbe'} over and over again
> ;-)
> > > But beyond that?
> > >
> > > One thing in particular that puzzles me is how {Duy'a'} and {Duy''a'}
> > > differ in sound, that is, how to say {''}.
> > >
> > > Also, I wonder about using locative in a noun phrase, as in {bIQDaq
> veng},
> > > my attempt at translating "the city on the water" (yes, I know a true
> > > Klingon would not associate his city with water...). Is that ok?
> > >
> > > {jIlabta'}
> > >
> > > {buSwI'}
> > > aka kff
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
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