[Tlhingan-hol] Significance of constructed languages

[Will Martin]

{-ghach} turns a verb into a noun, but it is considered very strange to apply it to a bare verb. Okrand invented it in order to come up with the word {naDHa’ghach} = “discommendation”. It relies on a suffix, apparently, to color the nature of the noun formed. So, {valtaHghach} is “cleverness”, but it relates to ongoing, consistent cleverness, and not simply a briefly clever act. {valta’ghach} has more to do with the intentional and successful cleverness. {valqa’ghach} would relate to repeated episodes of cleverness, without implying that the person or people showed continuous cleverness between the episodes. So, with {-ghach} there are areas of subtlety in a Klingon term that would be awkward and wordy to explain in translation.

Technically, you COULD use {-ghach} on a bare verb, but you’d really only do it as a joke or some other intentionally ungrammatical construction, to call attention to the word in some oddly special way. Nobody does it in normal conversation. It ain’t no citified way to speak proper Klingon.

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Nov 1, 2015, at 2:27 PM, qunnoQ HoD <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > {Holmey lumutlhlu'bogh} = "languages which are constructed".
> 
> that is what i wanted to say ! at first I tried to write <<constructed languages>>,but i couldn't find the exact words. then I thought of saying <<languages linguists constructed>> but this went south too. so finally I decided to try and write <<languages which are constructed>>
> 
> just a question on {-ghach} because I didn't quite understand its use. is {-ghach} only to be glued at verbs ending in suffixes as {-be'}, {Ha'} etc, or can I put it too on verbs such as {Hurgh} ? So as to mean {Hurghghach} = Darkness ?
> 
> ok, the time has come to confess my sin..
> 
> when I try to write in Klingon,I start trying to build a sentence and slowly I manage to get somewhere. the sentence maybe wrong, but my mind can process the way things ought to be. I think of the verb,then who does what to whom, glue the prefix, put the object first, the subject last etc..
> 
> but when I try to translate from klingon to english it feels as if my mind is being tied into a knot. it feels as if I'm driving in reverse going up a mountain at night.. I'm used to sentences subject-verb-object,and when i try to read in the opposite order it just feels so weird !
> 
> unfortunately -for the time being- i can't translate from klingon to english. i believe its way too premature for me unless the sentences are very simple.
> 
> thank you very much for your comments !
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 8:29 PM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com <mailto:de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com>> wrote:
> qunnoQ HoD:
> >> vInDa'pu' pIm. HatlhmeyDaq pIm. Hatlhmeyvo' pIm. nughmeyvo' pIm.
> 
> De'vID:
> > mu'tlheghmey naQ bIHbe'. Dach wot'a'.
> 
> Note also that {Hatlh} refers to the "country" in the sense of
> "countryside". The political sense of a "country" or "state" is {Sep}.
> 
> --
> De'vID
> 
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