[Tlhingan-hol] Significance of constructed languages

[Will Martin]

Comments below.

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Nov 2, 2015, at 9:45 AM, qunnoQ HoD <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ...
> and now I will try to translate the Klingon sentences, that I failed yesterday to translate. the idea came to me,that since klingon is written backwards (OVS),then to translate it I have to go/think in the same opposite direction. (I don't know if this makes sense). anyway the translation came out as follows.
> ...
> > DIp DachenmoH 'e' DaHechchugh, {-bogh} yIlIjQo'
> don't forget the {-bogh},if you intend to mean that the noun is constructed

Very close. “Don’t forget {-bogh} if you intend that you form a noun.” You are the subject of {chenmoH}. There is no indefinite subject.

> ...
> > {nughomchoHmoH} qoj {nuyIrchoHmoH} 'e' DaHechba'.
> did you intend <<they make us meet>> or <<they make us gather>> ? 

There’s no question here. He used the verb suffix {-ba’}, not {-‘a’}. “You obviously intend ‘They cause us to begin to meet,' and/or ‘They cause us to begin to gather.’” 

Meanwhile, I wonder why add {-choH} to either of these verbs. If you cause meeting and/or gathering, you are causing a change of state. I don’t see a reason to call attention to the specific moment of the initiation of the action. I also suspect that {yIr} needs a direct object and probably should have been {yIr’egh} or {yIrchuq}, or generally wasn’t a particularly good choice for the verb.

If you want to imply that we haven’t met before, then {qIH} would have been a better choice. {nuqIHmoH}.

> > mu'tlheghmey naQ bIHbe'. Dach wot'a'.
> the whole sentences are not. the verb is absent however 

{wot’a’} is one word, so there is no “however”. “The main verb is absent.” I’m using the word “main” to represent special significance or importance, which is what {-‘a’} suggests as a noun suffix. {bIHbe’} means “They are not”. So, “They are not complete sentences."

> > ngIq Hol chenmoHlu'bogh
> each language which they created

The subject it indefinite, so there is no “they”. {ngIq} means “single”, not “each”. This would be “a single language which is formed.”

The rest is pretty much spot on. You are coming along nicely in your translation skill.

I was much slower. Qanqor had a hard time getting certain basic Klingon grammatical ideas across to me. I was stubbornly stupid about not getting that adjectival verbs precede subjects when used as a verb, but follow nouns when used as an adjective. Then, for no recognizable reason, it clicked. Then he took the vow and for a month he refused to write anything in English. People would write questions about the language in English and he’d answer in Klingon. He assigned me the task of translating his answers for those who couldn’t understand them.

It was a huge break for me, because it gave me large volumes of very well-written Klingon text to translate. In those days, a LOT of what was written here in Klingon was very badly formed, so it was hard to learn because a beginner couldn’t tell which problems were in the student’s ability to translate FROM Klingon, and which ones were in the writer’s ability to translate INTO Klingon. Qanqor was writing well-formed Klingon well before anyone else.

Many more can write in well-formed Klingon now. These are salad days...

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