Grammar Guide: Request for comments

[ter'eS]

For a long time, I've wanted to prepare a quick guide to Klingon grammar for the casual user.  It seems to me that there is a lot of vocabulary floating around out there, but that grammar guides are hard to find.  There isn't much on-line, and The Klingon Dictionary is becoming harder to find at your local bookstore.  Please take a look at what I've written below, and give me your opinions.  Is it too brief, too detailed?  Does it cover what the casual user would like to know?  I especially value your comments, because in many ways those on this board are exactly the target audience for a guide like this.

Thanks!

(If this is too long to post, I can upload it to my website and change it to a link).

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The Quick n Dirty Guide to Klingon Grammar

I'll assume you have access to a list of words and prefixes and suffixes.  I'll also assume you understand some basic grammar terms (eg,
subject, adjective, pronoun). This guide just scratches the surface of Klingon grammar, and won't even teach how to write full sentences, but it should help people avoid the most common simple errors.

1.   The capital and lower-case letters of Klingon are important parts of the spelling. Don't begin sentences or names with capitals unless the word is already spelled that way.  Don't change capitals to lower-case in words that have them.

2.   Several words in Klingon are spelled alike, but have completely different meanings, eg. Quch "forehead/be happy"; Hurgh  "pickle/be dark".  How you use such words depends on which meaning you are intending.

3.   Klingon adjectives when used as a quality of a thing follow the thing: Hap Hurgh "dark material"; may' Dun "wonderful battle", jup chu' "new friend". (Hap "material"; may' "battle"; Dun "be great, wonderful"; jup "friend"; chu' "be new")

4.   The basic sentence order is OBJECT-VERB-SUBJECT.  Other nouns, sometimes called adverbials, that show location, beneficiary, cause, time, etc. come before the Object.

5.   Titles (eg. HoD "Captain") and general designations (eg. Duj "ship") come after the proper name: ter'eS HoD "Captain Teresh", 'enterpray' ejDo' "Starship Enterprise". (ejDo' "starship")

6.   Names are given as X, Y puqloD/puqbe', Z tuq, or "X, son/daughter of Y, of the House of Z". (puqloD "son"; puqbe' "daughter"; tuq "familial House")

 (Names and titles in the KAG and other Khemorex Klinzhai organizations are not based on tlhIngan Hol and may follow different rules.)

7.   X 'oH pongwIj'e' = "My name is X". (pong "name"; 'oH "it"; -wIj "my"; -'e' grammatical suffix)

8.   The Noun1 Noun2 construction is used for
    a.   ownership or possession: yaS taj "the officer's knife/the knife of the officer" (yaS "officer"; taj "knife")
    b.   like an adjective to show origin (romuluS HIq "Romulan ale") or composition (peQ chem "magnetic field"; Hurgh Hap  "pickle material"). (romuluS "Romulus"; HIq "ale"; peQ "magnetism"; chem "field (in physics)")

9.   You can make lots of combinations using N1-N2 and adjective groupings, but it is considered bad form to connect them without spaces, as if they are official words.  Leave spaces between the words to show they are your own constructions: quv Dun 'etlh "Glorious Honor Sword", not quvDun'etlh. (quv "personal honor"; 'etlh "sword")

10.   When Klingon adjectives are used to describe a thing, they act as verbs, and come before the thing: Dun may' "The battle is wonderful"; HoS HIq "The ale is strong." (HoS "be strong")

11.   When an adjective is used as a verb to describe a thing or another person, no verb prefix is added, as above.  However, when you are using it to describe yourself or someone you are talking to, a verb prefix is needed, eg: jI- "I", bI- "you", ma- "we", ex. jIghung "I am hungry."; bIlugh "You are right." (ghung "be hungry"; lugh "be correct")

12.   The Klingon independent pronouns, such as jIH "I", SoH "you", maH "we", etc. are used differently and less often than English pronouns.
    a.   You do not need to use an independent pronoun with an adjective used as a verb.  If you do use one, you must still use the proper verb  prefix, and it gives a special emphasis to the sentence: jIghung "I'm hungry" vs. jIghung jIH "I'M the one who is hungry!" (See above for the placement of jIH, which is the Subject of the verb.)
   b.   The independent pronouns do not show ownership.  For this, use the possessive noun suffixes, eg. –wIj "my", –lIj "your", -Daj "his, her, its"; ex. DujwIj "my ship"; SojlIj "your food" (Soj "food")
   c.   The independent pronouns are used most in a special kind of sentence that identifies one noun with another.  In this case, they act much like forms of the verb "am/are/is".  For example: yaS jIH "I am an officer."; tlhIngan maH "We are Klingons!".  When the Subject of these sentences is not a pronoun, the sentence will take an actual subject noun (always add the suffix –'e'!) and use a third person pronoun as a "to be" connector: tlhIngan ghaH loD'e' "The man is a Klingon"; matlh 'oH pongDaj'e' "His name is Maltz.";  romuluS Dujmey bIH Dujmey'e' "The ships are Romulan (ships)". (ghaH "he, she")

13.   Action (non-adjective) verbs that don't have objects can use the same verb prefixes as the adjective verbs.  When the subject is 3rd person (he, she, it, they), usually no verb prefix is needed: jInep "I'm lying"; bI'Ij "you listen"; ghoS "He's going". (nep "to lie"; 'Ij "to listen"; ghoS "to come, go, approach")

14.   Action verbs that have objects use the set of verb prefixes that indicate subject and object together, eg vI- "I (subj) – 3rd person (object)", ex. Duj vIlegh "I see a ship.", vIlegh "I see it".  For most verbs with a 3rd person subject and object, there is no prefix on the verb: Duj legh yaS "The officer sees the ship.", HoD HoH "He kills the captain." (legh "to see"; HoH "to kill")

15.    The independent pronouns can be used with action verbs, again with a special emphasis: HoD HoH ghaH "HE'S the one who is killing the captain."; ghaH vIlegh "HE'S the one I see."

16.   Verb suffixes can be added to any verb (or adjective or pronoun used like a verb) to alter its meaning:
    a.   –'a' to ask a question: bIghung'a' "Are you hungry?"; tlhIngan SoH'a' "Are you a Klingon?"
    b.   –be' to negate the verb: jIghungbe' "I am not hungry."; Duj 'oHbe' "It is not a ship."
    c.   –qu' to intensify the verb: jIghungqu' "I am very hungry"
    d.   These suffixes can also be combined: bIghungqu'be''a'? "Are you not very hungry?"

[Abbot Nej vIt]

Thank you-Thank you-Thank you.

This will be very useful to me as I begin to work with my fellow Clergy on some basic language skills.

Would you be adverse to this eventually being reposted on the Library site once we get it updated?

maj {Good}...

[Fleet Admiral toQDuj epetai jonwi]

  How do I write my name properly then?-always just used lower case for the whole lot!-
Fleet Admiral Toqduj Epetai Jonwi-can you advise please?-ta.

[ter'eS]

How do I write my name properly then?-always just used lower case for the whole lot!-
Fleet Admiral Toqduj Epetai Jonwi-can you advise please?-ta.

I'll give you the tlhIngan Hol spellings.  Exactly how tlhIngan Hol spelling interacts with Klingoneese (sp?) names is not something I feel competent to address.

toQDuj "Bird of Prey" (from toQ "raptor" + Duj "ship")
jonwI' "engineer" (although this word looks like it is made from a verb plus the noun suffix -wI' "one who is, one who does", the only verb jon in the dictionary means "to capture", and I don't get the connection, if any, between "captor" and "engineer")


Abbott Nej vIt: Thanks for your comments.  I'm planning to post the Grammar Guide to my own website after I get it finished.  You are welcome to post it directly or link to my site. I would ask that you wait until I'm completely done with it, just so you have my most polished version.  I guess I'd prefer you to eventually link to it, for the same reason, in case I make any later changes to it.

[ter'eS]

I thought of a couple of other topics for the grammar guide:

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A. The apostrophe ' is a real consonant in tlhIngan Hol and is a glottal stop (like the catch in your voice when you say "uh-oh".)  It should not be added to words that don't contain it, or moved around in or taken out from words that do. (A tip for pronouncing it at the end of words: say the word as if it ended in "t", and then make the "t"-sound progressively shorter until only the stoppage of air in your throat remains.)

B. You can use action verbs to describe nouns by adding the verb suffix -bogh to the action verb.  Although it acts like an adjective, the suffixed verb is still a verb, and the noun it describes is its subject, so it comes after the verb, ex. Suv loD "the man fights" > Suvbogh loD "the man who fights/the fighting man".  You can add the verb suffixes noted above to these verb forms, ex. Suvbe'bogh loD "the man who does not fight". (Suv "to fight"; loD "man")

C. The noun suffix -wI' can be added to most verbs to mean "the one who" or "the thing which", ex. yot "to invade" > yotwI' "invader"; Qaw' "to destroy" > Qaw'wI' "destroyer"; mob "be alone" > mobwI' "one who is alone".  This makes the verb into a noun, which is used like any other noun.

D. Plural nouns that refer to things take the noun suffix -mey, ex. Dujmey "ships."  Plural nouns that refer to people usually take the noun suffix -pu', ex. loDpu' "men".  An exception to this: using -mey with people gives the idea of "multiple people scattered around", ex. loDmey "men all over the place".  The other plural suffix -Du' is used for body parts, when still attached to the body. ex Ho'Du' "teeth".  Using -mey with these nouns also gives the "scattered around" idea: Ho'mey "teeth all over the place". (Ho' "tooth")

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By the end of June, I'll take whatever suggestions have been made and finish this thing up.  I'll post the link after I've gotten it uploaded to my site.

[Jon]

If anyone has the time or inclination to contribute, several of the wikis have Klingon grammar pages, some of which are half decent, but most require a lot of work:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_Language- wikipedia
• http://mughom.wikia.com - aims to be a Klingon dictionary written in Klingon (the apostrophe is missing in mu'ghom because wikia couldn't handle it)
• http://mughom.wikia.com/wiki/QaH:A_Guide_to_Klingon - a guide to Klingon grammar, in English, within the above
• http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Topic:Klingon - the fledgling Klingon Language Department on Wikiversity
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Klingon - a wikibook on the Klingon language

I apologise in advance for any contributions I have made to the above that in are error, the wiki motto is jaq, and I believe in spreading the mu'.

[Kesvirit]

I hope it is not too late to get in a few comments.

I like the way in which you have come up with new examples from which beginners can work. Everything else I have seen, both in print and online, has been taken from TKD.

I'll also assume you understand some basic grammar terms (eg, subject, adjective, pronoun).

That may be assuming too much of your readers. When TKD first came out people were snatching up copies with great enthusiasm, only to give up on learning the language when they found that they did not have the extensive knowledge of syntax from which Okrand was working. I think that you would do best to preface your outline of Klingon grammar with definitions and examples (in English) of any grammar terms you use (such as subject, adjective, pronoun, object, direct object, indirect object, etc.).

You may wish to emphasize that the apostrophe acts as a letter, not just a phoneme. It might further serve to keep users from throwing them about any old way. Then again, perhaps hope springs eternal. }}:-\

[ter'eS]

I've completed my Quick 'n Dirty Guide to Klingon Grammar and posted it to my site.  It's basically the same content as I presented here, re-arranged a little and with explanatory (I hope) links.  I hope people find it useful!

[y0da777]

Thank you for the guide, it really helped me learn the grammar of the words i got of the internet until i got a copy of tkd from my local library!


                                             -charghwI' HoD
p.s.
can i give myself the title of Hod?
(HoD meaning captain)


[Edit - continues in Building a Klingon Persona.]