[Tlhingan-hol] Story: ghuv = The Recruit - 10

[Robyn Stewart]

I'm learning things, or at least being reminded of things, so you're
probably learning or relearning things, even if it's just about what lurks
in Qov's mind. 

Today's installment:

romuluSngan tengchaHDaq torgh lujol 'e' luHech. tengchaH noch pat ghunnISqa'
torgh. Qu' DeltaHvIS maQ, tagha' qagh torgh. jatlh, "Qaghlu'pu''a'? mang
chu'qu' jIH. wa'Hu' mangHom neH jIH. not wo'vaD Qu' vIta'pu'. jIH
tuneHbej'a'?"

Can you read it unaided? Even if it's trivial for you, I think it helps to
have your Klingon-reading brain stimulated. If you had to think for a moment
or look up a word or two, then obviously it helped. If you need help to read
it, that's below.

romuluSngan = romuluS (=Romulus)+ ngan (=inhabitant) = Romulan  - You could
probably guess that.
tengchaH = space station 
-Daq = locative

The noun phrase romuluSngan tengchaHDaq (= "on the Romulans' space station"
or "to a Romulan space station") provides a location or destination for the
action of the rest of the sentence. Because of this role you know it is not
the subject or object of the sentence.

torgh lujol 'e' luHech

lu- = verb prefix indicating a 3rd person plural subject with a 3rd person
singular object. This is grammatical number not actual number, so just as in
English we say "Everybody loves Raymond" with the 3rd person singular verb
conjugation, in Klingon we say <Raymond parHa'qu' Hoch> without the lu-. 

jol = beam aboard  - so lujol = they beam him aboard
'e' = indicates that the previous sentence is the object of the following
verb, often translated "that"
Hech = intend

"They intend that they beam him aboard a Romulan space station." or simply,
"They intend to beam him aboard  a Romulan space station." 

tengchaH noch pat ghunnISqa' torgh.

tengchaH - you just saw that above
noch = sensors
pat = system

Three nouns in a row. Is it the "system of the (space station sensors)" or
the "space station's (sensors system)"? Is there the slightest difference
between the two? It's a system of sensors of the space station. If you pile
up nouns, make sure that the reader is going to be able to understand the
combination, even if they aren't coming at it from the same direction as you
are.

ghun = program, be warm
-nIS = V2 need to  
-qa' = V3 resume, again

"Torg needs to reprogram the space station sensor system."

Some may argue that "reprogram" is an English idiom. I could as well have
said <ghunnISchoH> for "change the programming" but that could be misread as
"begin the programming" and the Romulans have presumably programmed their
own sensor system to do what they want, so he will be programming it again.

Qu' DeltaHvIS maQ, tagha' qagh torgh.

Qu' = mission
Del = describe
-taHvIS - if you don't know his suffix combo by now, someone is doing it
wrong. Is it me or you?
maQ = the big guy who collected young torgh.
tagha' = at last, finally - remember that the appearance of an adverb
usually heralds the beginning of a new clause.
qagh = interrupt, or worms eaten as food  - which one fits between an adverb
and a noun?

"While maQ describes the mission, Torg finally interrupts."

jatlh, "Qaghlu'pu''a'? ...

jatlh = speak, say - it's an attributed speech marker, as well as the verb
used to introduce a language spoken.
Qagh = err, make a mistake (you know it's not the noun "error" because it
has verb suffixes on it).
-lu' = V5 the indefinite subject suffix. I know I told you to remember it,
but not everyone is obedient.
-pu' = V7 perfective - the emphasis here is on the completion of the action
of the verb
-'a' = the yes/no question asking suffix - it turns the sentence into a
question in the way inverting the verb and subject or adding "Do/does" does
in English.

Qaghlu'pu' - a mistake has been made, there has been a mistake
Qaghlu'pu''a'? - has a mistake been made?, has there been a mistake?

He said, "Has there been some mistake?"

The rest of this installment continues Torg's question.
 
mang chu'qu' jIH.

mang = soldier - there's a lot of soldiers in this story, remember this one.
chu' = be new, activate, play a musical instrument, turn on, trigger ... a
lot of things
-qu' = emphatic verb suffix
jIH = I, me (pronoun)

If you're a beginner and are looking for the OVS in this sentence, you might
be forgiven for thinking it means "I strongly activate the soldier." Your
main clue that this is not the case (aside from it not making any sense for
Torg to say this now) is that chu' doesn't have a first person verb prefix
on it. This is a pronoun-as-to-be sentence, with jIH acting as the verb and
the pronoun, thus meaning "I am". The verb chu' is acting adjectivally. 

"I am a very new soldier."

 wa'Hu' mangHom neH jIH. 

This is the same type of sentence, with a couple of extra bits.
wa' = one (the number)
Hu' = get up, or days ago
wa'Hu' means "one day ago" which in English is usually said, "yesterday".
Here it's a time stamp: one of the nouns that can hang out at the beginning
of a Klingon sentence to tell us when it happened.
-Hom = diminutive, makes the naoun it is attached to describe something that
is conceptually less than the starting noun. mangHom = cadet - a trainee
soldier
neH = only, merely

"Yesterday I was only a cadet."

not wo'vaD Qu' vIta'pu'.

not = never
wo' = empire
-vaD = N5 - for the benefit of - I probably already told you to memorize it.
vI- = verb prefix for when the subject is "I" and the object is
"him/her/it/them"
ta' = accomplish
-pu' = perfective 

"I have never done a mission for the empire."

I'm waffling as to whether to include the perfective or not. <not wo'vaD Qu'
vIta'> has more of the emphasis on actually doing the mission, but is more
likely to be interpretable as "I never do missions for the empire." It's not
<wo'vaD Qu' vIta'Qo'>. Maybe <wej wo'vaD Qu' vIta'> is best.

Last sentence: jIH tuneHbej'a'?"

jIH = here it is a pronoun. Optional, but adds emphasis.
tu- = verb prefix, 2nd person plural subject with 1st person singular object
neH = want
-bej = N6 - definitely, certainly
-'a' = V9 - the questioning  suffix. Don't forget this one.

<tuneH'a'> = do you (i.e. you guys) want me?
<tuneHbej'a'> = are you sure you want me?
<jIH tuneHbej'a'> = are you sure it's me you want? are you sure you want ME?
(different ways to translate the emphasis given by including the pronoun)

-	Qov





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