Klingon Grammar Addenda
Key:
Spoken by Okrand
| Inferred from canon |
Accepted usage
Main chapters given within paretheses are included in the table
of contents for comparison with The Klingon Dictionary only,
and there is no text to be found in these sections. (For the sake of
brevity, not all subsections from the TKD are listed here.)
-
Introduction
Conventions
1. The Sounds of Klingon
1.1. Consonants
2. (Grammatical Sketch - Introduction)
3. Nouns
3.1. Complex nouns
3.2.1. Compound Nouns
3.2.2. Verb plus wI'
3.3. Suffixes
3.3.1. Augmentative/diminutive
3.3.2. Number
3.3.4. Possession/specification
3.3.5. Syntactic markers
3.4. The nounnoun construction
4. Verbs
4.1. Pronominal prefixes
4.1.1. Basic prefixes
4.2. Verb suffixes
4.2.1. Oneself/One another
4.2.5. Indefinite subject/ability
4.2.7. Aspect
4.2.9. Syntactic markers
4.4. Adjectives
5. Other Kinds of Words
5.2. Numbers
5.4. Adverbials
5.6. Names and address
6. Syntax
6.1. Basic Sentences
6.2. Complex sentences
6.2.1. Compound sentences
6.2.3. Relative clauses
6.2.4. Purpose clauses
6.2.5. Sentences as Objects
6.4. Questions
6.6. Comparatives and superlatives
7. (Clipped Klingon)
(Dictionary)
Appendix: A Selected List of Useful Klingon Expressions
(Addendum)
Last updated (by Terrence Donnelly) 7/17/99
This page is an attempt to collect in one place all the addenda,
corrections, clarifications and accepted conventions for
tlhIngan Hol that have
appeared since the publication of The Klingon Dictionary in
1992. The entries are keyed to the section numbers of TKD, and each
entry includes the original source of the addendum (if possible). In
order to avoid copyright infringement, and to encourage you to seek
out the sources, the entries are paraphrased, rather than quoted
directly. Don't consider this page to be a substitute for the
originals; every serious student should own the original texts, if
only to see how accurately I've interpreted them.
Within each section, the entries are classified under one
of three degrees of reliability: Those in bold type
represent direct statements from Marc Okrand (the language's creator
and only source of canon), those in plain type
represent grammar inferred from canon examples but not directly
addressed by Marc Okrand (I defer to the members of the Klingon
Language Institute and its associated mailing list for the
interpretation of these canon examples), and those in italic
type represent the accepted usages of the KLI and its members,
while recognizing that these usages have no canonical standing
(there is some overlap between these last two categories, since
hopefully we base our usage on canon). Finally, you can read my own
commentaries on a given topic within boxes in the text.
You the reader should consider bold
entries to be as authoritative as TKD itself, plain
entries to be reliable but not set in stone, and italic
entries primarily as unofficial guides to good usage. My own
commentaries, of course, are my opinions only and should be given no
more weight than they deserve.
A final note: This page is concerned only with grammar. It
does not consider any lexical topics, such as the transitivity of a
given verb or new or expanded meanings for existing words, unless
specifically related to a more general point of grammar.
I want this page to be as accurate and inclusive as
possible, so if I've omitted something or stated it wrongly, please
email me with the
correction.
-
| *text | ungrammatical usage |
| ?text | questionable usage |
| BoP | BirdofPrey poster, 1998 |
| CK | Conversational Klingon |
| FAQ | Klingon Language Institute FrequentlyAskedQuestions |
| HQ | HolQeD |
| KGT | Klingon for the Galactic Traveller |
| KLI | Klingon Language Mailing List |
| MSN | Microsoft Network Expert Forum |
| MO | Marc Okrand |
| PK | Power Klingon |
| S# | Skybox trading card, No. # |
| SK | news.startrek.com/startrek.klingon |
| ST# | Star Trek movie, No. # |
| TKD | The Klingon Dictionary |
| TKW | The Klingon Way |
©1999 Terrence Donnelly
|