[tlhIngan Hol] Go and come, know, impersonal verbs

[Will Martin]

Just to add a kink to question #3, I need to know more details about any vague statement like “It’s early,” or “It’s late,” before even starting on how to translate it. While it’s okay in English to not really say what you mean, in Klingon, I think you really need to decide specifically what you mean.

First of all, if you mean “It’s early in the day,” or “It’s late at night”, keep in mind that Klingons see a day as the time between sunset and the next sunset, not as the time between midnight and the next midnight. In winter in the Northern Hemisphere on Earth, the day ends not long after 6:00pm. When it gets dark, it becomes “tomorrow”.

So, if we don’t think of night as 6pm to midnight and instead see it as the full night time, “late at night” would probably imply near dawn.

Maybe it’s clearer to just say something closer to what you mean, like {jIQongnIS}, or make an objective reference to time instead of a subjective reference to how you feel about what time it is. Even if you don’t have a tlhaq, just give an hour that you think is close, since we all know that “A Klingon may be inaccurate, but he is NEVER, approximate.”

Prefer to be wrong than to be vague. If someone tells you that you are wrong, hey, FOOD FIGHT!

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On Apr 9, 2023, at 10:55 AM, luis.chaparro--- via tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol at lists.kli.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi! I have three quick questions:
> 
> 1. In English, if you want to say that you are approching the position of your interlocutor, you use the verb *come*: *I'm coming!* In German too: *Ich komme!*. But in Spanish we use *go*: *¡(Ya) voy!*. Does Klingon work like English/German, like Spanish or in a completely different way?
> 
> 2. If I say something like: *When I saw it, I knew it would work*, the verb *know* doesn't actually mean *to have some knowledge*, but rather *to understand*, *to get to know*. You analyze the solution and you come to a conclusion: *It will work*. Should I use here *-choH*?: *Qap 'e' vISovchoH*. Or should I use some other verb?
> 
> 3. Are there other impersonal verbs in Klingon apart from meterological verbs like *SIS*? *It's cold / hot* is translated with *jIbIr / jItuj*. But how about *It's early / late*, for example?
>  
> Thank you!
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