qaStaHvIS jarmey vorgh, poH vItlh vIghajpu'be', 'ach tetlhvam QInmey Daj vIlaDtaH. DaH 'op poH vIghajqa' 'ej jIghel vIneH: 1. Is *vItlh* correct here?
Yes, although I don't know whether Klingons talk about "having"
time. You might instead say vItlhbe' poH the period of
time was not a lot. I'm not saying they don't way poH
ghaj; just that I don't know if they do.
2. Aspect again: Are *vIghajpu'be'* and *vIlaDtaH* in this context correct? If I didn't want to present the action of reading as continuous, could I also have used *vIlaDpu'*?
I'd use vIghaj instead of vIghajpu'. You're not saying you performed an act of having and finished it. You're describing your state over a period of time. That calls for no perfective.
vIlaDtaH is fine here. "Continuous" doesn't necessarily
mean the activity occupied every moment over the period of time. jIlaDtaH
doesn't preclude the possibility of getting up for a snack and
then going back to reading, for instance.
3. I want *tetlhvam QInmey Daj* to have a non-restrictive meaning, i.e. all messages are interesting and I've read them all. For a restrictive meaning I would have used a relative clause. Is this how it works in Klingon?
Verbs acting like adjectives can probably be interpreted as restrictive or non-restrictive depending on context. I don't know if anyone has surveyed all canonical examples of verbs acting like adjectives to determine if there is a pattern.
This is easy enough to clarify, however. tetlhvam QInmey
vIlaDtaH. Daj. I've been reading this list's messages.
They were interesting.
4. Can *ghel* take an object, for example: *'op Dochmey vIghel vIneH*?
Yes.
5. *'op Daq* = *some place*, *'op Daqmey* = *some places*, right?
No. 'op Daq and 'op Daqmey both mean unspecified
number of places. I don't believe we've been told that 'op
does the same plural thing that Hoch does, and if it did,
that's not what they would mean anyway. In English, some place
(or someplace) means "a place that is not clearly
identified," while some places means "unspecified number
of places."
6. I always forget to ask about it: How do you actually say in Klingon *do* in the sense of *What do you do at weekend* (asking for plans) or *Today I haven't do anything* (just relaxed)?
You pick a more specific verb. ta' accomplish is a common one for your examples: ghInjaj jaj wa' je veb nuq Data'? What will you accomplish next Saturday and Sunday? DaHjaj pagh vIta'pu'. I haven't accomplished anything today.
But there are other ways to translate do that might be
more appropriate in different senses.
7. Just out of curiosity: How would you say in Klingon *Doctor Who*? If we suppose that *Qel* could be something like a title and titles come in Klingon after the name, then we could say something like *'Iv Qel*. But then I realised that's an English thing, I mean, using *who* when asking for someone's name if you only know the title or a part of the whole name. In Spanish we use *who* (*quién*) when asking for people, but we use *what* (*qué*) when asking for the name in those situations (*¿El Doctor qué?*). So I just wanted to know if we have some information about who Klingons do that.
I've often wondered this myself. There are some difficulties here.
First, is the word Qel really appropriate? The Doctor isn't a physician, which is what I believe the word Qel refers to. He has a doctorate, or multiple doctorates. In early stories it was supposed that he had a PhD in everything, while later there is some indication that he (barely) received a doctorate from the Time Lords when he attended the Prydonian academy. Modern Doctor Who plays on the physician idea of the word in the sense that they call him a "doctor of war" — that is, he fixes things when things go bad — but I find this bit of retroactive continuity silly. So I honestly don't think Qel is the right word for this.
Also, in the world of Doctor Who, the Doctor's name isn't "Doctor Who." His name is never spoken; he is simply known by his title, "Doctor." So there's little point in deciding whether the word Qel (or whatever substitute you use) acts as a title or not, because it'll never be attached to anything.
In the real world, the title Doctor Who is actually a verbless question: "Doctor Who?" It's a fill-in-the-blank that basically means the same as "What is the Doctor's name?" But the question 'Iv Qel? means Who is the Doctor? Not quite the same thing.
So, unfortunately, translating Doctor Who is a mess.
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name