[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: DIvI'

[qov at kli.org]

> The problem however is, that still you have to remember the rest of the
> suffixes, that belong in each respective category.. So, even with this
> mnemonic things are bound to go south every now and then. Indeed, the
> only definite solution is practice.

Ah yeah, if you're still working on remembering all the suffixes, no quick
reminder is going to work.  What you're doing is exactly the right path:
writing lots of sentences and making the language feel natural for you.   Be
on the lookout for verbs that make excellent sense and use a few suffixes
but in a combination you don't always see.  Collect those verbs and make
then yours in your head. You can hardly work with Klingon for a week without
knowing that -taH comes before -vIS, and the very weirdness of separating
those two makes the position of the rare -neS memorable, mojaqmeyvetlh
chevtaHneSvIS.  Whatever someone says that is memorable or sounds fun to
you, say and write it again to embed the order: bIHar'eghnISqa'.
wISay'choHmoHlaH. The proficiency tests ask you to state the number of a
suffix, which can be helpful. L is the roman numeral for 50 and the
L-suffixes are type 5.  The suffix -moH is all alone as a type 4 suffix,
which might make it FOURlorn. 

Something you wrote recently about writing a sentence forwards for the first
time makes me suggest that you pause and write simpler sentences for a
while.  I get the idea that you are composing sentences in your head, in
Greek or English and then translating them into Klingon. Strive to think the
sentence in Klingon. It's harder, so the sentence will be simpler, but I
think the drive for complexity should come after you have internalized the
structure of simple sentences.  This is for everyone.  If you write one noun
to begin an English sentence, e.g. "Klingons ..." your mind is going ahead
to what the Klingons might be doing.  In Klingon you write "tlhInganpu' ..."
and your mind should be searching for what is being done to the Klingons, or
what the Klingons have to do with the setting of the sentence. Those are the
roles for a noun that comes first in a Klingon sentence.

tlhInganpu' naD voDleH. 

tlhInganpu' bej DIvI' negh.

tlhInganpu' DIqIHpu'bogh vIleghqa'.

tlhInganpu' DaSmeyDaq 'Iw ghay jagh mej'aD SIjlu'pu'bogh bu' meqletlh.

I made up each sentence one word at a time, not figuring out what the next
word would be until I was already typing the previous one.  "What verb could
be applied to the Klingons? Who or what is a good subject for that verb?"
Except that I initially thought of mej'aD chevlu'pu'bogh as one unit, and
finished the sentence by coming up with a weapon, but then reflected on
physiology and decided that slitting was more effective.  

Maybe when the one-sentence story is complete, 'arHa can do
one-word-at-a-time sentences.   The person who finally decides the sentence
is over and adds the period should contribute the first word of the next
sentence. I haven't been following the story, because I want to read it at
the end in all its glory. Which most likely will involve the destruction of
the universe, because how else would we know it was over?

- Qov