[Tlhingan-hol] Story: ghuv = The Recruit - 9

[Robyn Stewart]

If you can read a single phrase in Klingon, you can read anything. It's all
made out of phrases. Here are seven more, in the continuing story. Torg is
on board a shuttlecraft as part of a mysterious military assignment.

'ortaHvIS be' 'IHqu', ghu' QIj maQ. Qobbogh Qu' le' chavmeH, tugh ghom mach
muv torgh. potlh ngoQchaj 'ej pegh. nab naQ QIjbe' maQ. torgh Qu' neH Del.

The first sentence has three verbs: 'or, 'IH and QIj. You know 'or (=pilot)
is part of a subordinate clause, because it has a V9 suffix, -vIS. You know
-vIS  is always accompanied by -taH, and you were told to remember what that
means. Can you tell what the verb 'IH (=be beautiful, be handsome) is doing?
It's acting like an adjective. <'IH be'> = "The woman is beautiful." <be'
'IH> = "beautiful woman". It's an important distinction, (and one that Bing
hasn't grasped yet), but you're smarter than Bing. be' 'IHqu' is the subject
of the verb 'ortaHvIS. So The first clause is "While the very beautiful
woman pilots".

The rest of the sentence is a simple OVS clause.
Object = ghu' = situation
Verb = QIj = explain
Subject = maQ = "Sign"  the code name of the big man who just shanghaied
Torg.

Here's the second sentence: Qobbogh Qu' le' chavmeH, tugh ghom mach muv
torgh.

It contains six words that can be verbs. One of them can also be a noun, and
it is a noun here. Two of the verbs have V9 suffixes. Two are acting
adjectivally. And one is the main verb of the sentence. I'll imagine you're
a hardy beginner or a low intermediate speaker and need to parse this. First
of all, I've been kind to beginners and put a comma between the clauses.
This sentence can be easily parsed without the comma because of the adverb
tugh (= soon). An adverb of that sort has to precede the clause it modifies.


Qob = be dangerous
-bogh = which, who, whom, with reference to the subject OR object of the
verb it's attached to 
As far as we know, a relative clause with -bogh has to have at least one
noun as part of it, so start looking for that noun .. there it is..
Qu' = mission, task, duty (learn this word, if you haven't already)  Qobbogh
Qu' = the mission which is dangerous
And then there's another verb:
le' = be special
A be-verb right after a noun, acting adjectivally, so it modifies the noun.
chav = achieve (it also means achievement, but it has a V9 on it so it must
be a verb here)
-meH = in order to, for the purpose of, the clause that the verb is attached
to 
<Qu' chavmeH> = in order to achieve the mission
<Qob Qu'> = the mission is dangerous - Note that the be-verb goes BEFORE the
noun to make this sort of sentence
<Qu' le'> = the special mission - Note that the be-verb goes AFTER the noun
to make this sort of phrase

"In order to achieve a dangerous special mission ..."

ghom = group
mach = be small
muv = join

"... soon Torg will join a small group."

The "will" sense comes only from "soon". You could translate it as "soon
joined" or "soon joins".

Next: potlh ngoQchaj 'ej pegh.

potlh = be important (also "important thing" but as it's the only verb
candidate in its clause, it can't be a noun here.
ngoQ = goal
-chaj = N4 their - the plural counterpart of -Daj
pegh = be secret, keep a secret

"Their goal is important and it is secret."  OR "Their goal is important and
he keeps it secret." 

nab naQ QIjbe' maQ. 

The verb in this sentence is the one with the verb suffix on it: QIjbe' =
doesn't explain. Object precedes: nab naQ. Subject follows: maQ

nab = plan
naQ = be entire
QIj = explain

"maQ does not explain the entire plan."

torgh Qu' neH Del.

Del = describe
neH = only - because it's right after a noun and there's no role for Del if
it means want.

"He describes only Torg's mission."

If this is useful to you, please let me know. If this COULD be useful to
you, except that I'm not giving you the information you need, let me know
too. Someone asked if they could forward this to another group. BY ALL
MEANS! I'm doing this to facilitate the learning of Klingon. That's my
mission. It's neither dangerous not special and my looks don't take anyone's
breath away, 'a batlh vIta'rup.

-	Qov

P.S. For those of you who received the full story in advance, I have already
done the push-ups I earned by using a disallowed suffix on a verb acting
adjectivally, and I corrected it here.
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