Type 4: Possession/specification

Type 4 is the largest class of noun suffixes. It consists of all the possessive suffixes, plus suffixes which can be translated as English this and that.

The possessive suffixes are:

 

-wIj my	-maj our
-lIj your	-raj your (plural)
-Daj his, her, its	-chaj their

 

Thus, juH home occurs in juHwIj my home, juHlIj your home, juHchaj their home, etc. When the noun being possessed refers to a being capable of using language, a special set of suffixes is used for first- and second-person possessors:

 

-wI’ my	-ma’ our
-lI’ your	-ra’ your (plural)

 

These suffixes occur in, for example, joHwI’ my lord and puqlI’ your child. It is grammatically correct to use the regular possessive suffixes with nouns referring to beings capable of speech (as in puqlIj your child), but such constructions are considered derogatory; joHwIj for my lord borders on the taboo. Students of Klingon should bear this in mind.

 

To indicate that one noun is the possessor of another noun (e.g., enemy’s weapon), no suffix is used. Instead, the two nouns are said in the order possessor-possessed: jagh nuH enemy’s weapon (literally, enemy weapon). This construction is also used for phrases translated by of the in English, such as weapon of the enemy. (See also section 3.4.)

 

There are two suffixes indicating how close to the speaker the object referred to by the noun is.

 

-vam this Like its English translation, this suffix indicates that the noun refers to an object which is nearby or which is the topic of the conversation.

 

nuHvam this weapon (near me as I speak)

yuQvam this planet (that we’ve been talking about)

When used with a plural noun (one with a plural suffix or an inherently plural noun), -vam is translated these:

nuHmeyvam these weapons

-vetlh that

This suffix indicates that the noun refers to an object which is not nearby or which is being brought up again as the topic of conversation.

 

nuHvetlh that weapon (over there)

yuQvetlh that planet (as opposed to the one we were just talking about)

When used with a plural noun, -vetlh is translated those:

nuHmeyvetlh those weapons

There is no Klingon equivalent for English a, an, the. In translating from Klingon to English, one must use context as a guide to when to use a or an and when the. In this book, a or an and the are used in translations to make the English sound more natural.

 

Type 5: Syntactic markers

These suffixes indicate something about the function of the noun in the sentence. As in English, subjects and objects are normally indicated by the position of the noun or nouns in the sentence. The following two English sentences have the same words, but the sentences have different meanings due to the order of the words:

 

Dogs chase cats.

Cats chase dogs.

Subjects and objects in Klingon are likewise indicated by word order. This is described in section 6.1.

 

In other instances, English indicates the function of nouns in a sentence by adding words, particularly prepositions. In the following English sentence, the word around before canaries indicates that the canaries are neither chasing nor being chased:

 

Dogs chase cats around canaries.

Similarly, in Klingon, nouns which indicate something other than subject or object usually must have some special indication of exactly what their function is. Unlike English, this is accomplished by using suffixes.

 

-Daq locative

This suffix indicates that something is happening (or has happened or will happen) in the vicinity of the noun to which it is attached. It is normally translated by an English preposition: to, in, at, on. The exact translation is determined by the meaning of the whole sentence. For example, pa’Daq is pa’ room plus the suffix -Daq. It may occur in sentences such as the following:

 

pa’Daq jIHtaH I’m in the room.

pa’Daq yIjaH Go to the room!

In the first sentence, jIH I is used in the sense of I am (see section 6.3), so in is the most reasonable translation of -Daq. In the second sentence, the verb is jaH go, so to makes the most sense as a translation of -Daq. An English preposition need not be part of the translation. Klingon Dung means area above, and DungDaq is overhead, literally something like “at the area above.” For further discussion on prepositional concepts, see section 3.4.

 

It is worth noting at this point that the concepts expressed by the English adverbs here, there, and everywhere are expressed by nouns in Klingon: naDev hereabouts, pa’ thereabouts, Dat everywhere. These words may perhaps be translated more literally as “area around here,” “area over there,” and “all places,” respectively. Unlike other nouns, these three words are never followed by the locative suffix. (Note that pa’ thereabouts and pa’ room are identical in sound; pa’- Daq, however, can mean only in/to the room.)

There are a few verbs whose meanings include locative notions, such as ghoS approach, proceed. The locative suffix need not be used on nouns which are the objects of such verbs.

 

Duj ghoStaH It is approaching the ship. (Duj ship, vessel, ghoStaH it is approaching it)

yuQ wIghoStaH We are proceeding toward the planet. (yuQ planet, wIghoStaH we are proceeding toward it)

If the locative suffix is used with such verbs, the resulting sentence is somewhat redundant, but not out-and-out wrong. DujDaq ghoStaH It is approaching toward the ship.

-vo’ from

This suffix is similar to -Daq but is used only when action is in a direction away from the noun suffixed with -vo’.

pa’vo’ yIjaH Leave the room! A more literal translation of this sentence might be “Go from the room.”

 

-mo’ due to, because of

This suffix occurs in sentences such as:

 

SuSmo’ joqtaH It is fluttering in the breeze.

The noun SuSmo’ means due to the breeze, so the whole sentence is literally “due to the breeze, it [a flag] is fluttering.”

 

-vaD for, intended for

This suffix indicates that the noun to which it is attached is in some way the beneficiary of the action, the person or thing for whom or for which the activity occurs.

 

Qu’vaD lI’ De’vam This information is useful for the mission.

The noun Qu’vaD means for the mission, and in this sentence -vaD indicates that the information is intended to be used somehow for the mission under discussion.

 

-’e’ topic

This suffix emphasizes that the noun to which it is attached is the topic of the sentence. In English, this is frequently accomplished by stressing the noun (saying it emphatically) or by special syntactic constructions.

 

lujpu’ jIH’e’ I, and only I, have failed. It is I who has failed.

De”e’ vItlhapnISpu’ I needed to get the INFORMATION. It was the information (and not something else) that I needed.

Without the ’e’, these same sentences would have no noun singled out for emphasis:

 

lujpu’ jIH I have failed.

De’ vItlhapnISpu’ I needed to get the information.

For a further use of -’e’, see section 6.3.