[797] in tlhIngan-Hol
additions to Klingon? (was Re: Two Exciting Announcements)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon May 10 11:34:11 1993
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Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: A.APPLEYARD@fs1.mt.umist.ac.uk
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: 10 May 93 15:28:42 GMT
Elias Israel <eli@village.boston.ma.us> wrote on Mon, 10 May 93 08:34:17 EDT
(Subject: Two Exciting Announcements):-
> ... a way to get a small number of questions to Marc Okrand.... ... I'll
pick a handful of the most pressing questions and present them to Dr. Okrand.
... list of potential questions I've already compiled ...
> (1) -ghach nominalizer. Can most verbs be nouned or only some? Can -ghach
be used on unmodified verbs?
I thought that if `X` is a verb, then `X-ghach` always is possible: "the act
or state of X-ing". If `X` means "be A", `X-ghach` means "A-ness", e.g. `Don`
V "be parallel with" > Donghach N "parallelness".
> (3) Missing prepositions: with, around, near, far from, through, etc.
[tlhej V accompany] is a useful candidate for a suffix for "with".
[Sum V be_near] is in the tape. [Hop V be_far_away] is in TKD, and could
usefully be allowable as transitive "be far from". If X is a supplied verb for
"pierce, go through", it could also be used as a suffix = "through".
> (5) Comparitives: can you turn verbs into nouns with -ghach and use them
in comparitive sentences? Ex: How would you say: "I am the captain because I
speak Klingon better than you."?
`tlhIngan-Hol vijatlhghach QaQ law' li' QaQ puS.`?
> (6) Can you use 'e' in more diverse ways. (e.g. add noun suffixes?) What
about as the subject of the second sentence? (Ex: "It makes me happy that the
captain lives.")
`muQuchmoH yinghach HoD.`?
> (9) What about metaphorical uses of prepositions, e.g.:
> "in klingon"
"In a language" arose in Tolkien Quenya in tolklang@dcs.ed.ac.uk, and they
decided to use the instrumental case (roughly equivalent to Klingon `-mo'`.
> "from monday to friday"
Why not use literal 'from' and 'to'? like many real languages do, treating
the journey through time as any other journey.
> (10) How to express "should", "ought", "must", etc.
Remember to distinguish "I had to do X and I did it" from "I had to do X but
I didn't do it".
> (11) How to express "too" something: too much, too few, too hot, too
cold, etc.
`qeS` = "advice": `HoD jaq law' qeS jaq puS` = "the captain is bolder than
[is] advise[able]" = "the captain is too bold"; `HoD jaq puS qeS jaq law'` =
"the captain is less bold than [is] advise[able]" = "the captain is not bold
enough";
And Klingon needs a much better range of color words!
