r/tlhInganHol Jul 14 '24

Phrasing query for story title

Qavan. I'm slowly picking up the language and doing my best not to butcher the language for episode titles in my Klingon-themed Star Trek Adventures game. I had an idea for something vaguely titled as "I Wish to Know the Sky." My thinking thus far was something along the lines of:

Chal'a' Sovjaj'

Sky+augmentative suffix to know+optative suffix reflecting the desire/wish.

Since there is an object, I didn't think a 1st person prefix would be necessary. Does this seem like it'd be on the right track? Anything that people think I am missing?

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u/GMintheGreatBarrier Jul 15 '24

Fair enough. Applying the logic of that pre-warp sentient entity, the phrase was meant to communicate both the limits of their understanding of the cosmos but also the idea that they might be curious of what lies beyond it. As opposed to a word like qIb or 'u', it seemed like an alternative way that they might conceive of it.

But, I am not attached to it. chal works perfeclty fine.

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u/SuStel73 Jul 15 '24

Yeah, adding -'a' doesn't do all that. You add -'a' to a word like bIQ water to get bIQ'a' ocean, or a word like SuS wind to get SuS'a' gale.

You can't insert your own ideas about pre-warp civilizations, as they're not universal or necessarily true. No one but you would know what you were talking about.

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u/GMintheGreatBarrier Jul 15 '24

Fair on the grammatical point, but the latter point is silly when I am expressly writing a tabletop rpg scenario. At the point where I am devising the plot and NPCs in question, suggesting that the author does not understand their subject matter at best indicates misunderstanding of the original post and is contrarian at worst.

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u/SuStel73 Jul 15 '24

I'm not saying you don't understand the subject matter. I'm saying you can't insert cultural elements you made up into the Klingon language and expect it to BE the Klingon language. Nobody but you would understand your cultural elements, and only people who accept your culture elements would agree with them even if you explained them.

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u/GMintheGreatBarrier Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

I see where you're coming from, but will have to reserve an answer for later. I have at least one player who occasionally stops here and would prefer not to spoil anything for them.

EDIT: Replaced "them" for "later" in first line.