A Klingon correction

I have a social media presence on Facebook, Bluesky (@acorn.garden), and Mastodon (@wgseligman@pagan.plus). Because my ego knows no bounds, I posted the following on all three:

My review of ta’ puq mach has just been published on Amazon. I was a bit surprised they accepted it.

(For those of you whose Klingon is rusty, ta’ puq mach means “The Little Prince”.)

tlhIngan Hol ghItlhta’ paqvam = This book is in Klingon

jIyweS DIvI’ Hol vIraS Hol je Hutlh = It lacks both an English and French translation

tlhIngan Hol yIghoj pagh paq pIm yIje’ = Learn Klingon or buy a different version

Did you notice that my Klingon is incorrect? qurgh did. He is one of the leading Klingon language experts. You may want to look at his work at the Klingon Language Academy.

qurgh sent me the following observations via Bluesky:

tlhIngan Hol ghItlhta’ paqvam = This book has written the Klingon language.

{ghItlh} lo’laHbe’ mu’tlheghvetlh, SetqIn chaq {ngaS} {lo’} ghap lo’.

DIvI’ Hol jIyweS vIraS Hol jIyweS je Hutlh = It lacks English and French translations.

My translation of the second sentence of qurgh‘s advice:

That sentence can’t use “ghItlh”, perhaps rather it will use “ngaS” or “lo'”.

ghItlh = to write
ngaS = contains
lo’ = use, make use of.

I edited the Amazon review. Hopefully they’ll accept it soon. After all, we don’t want any inaccuracies on the Internet, do we?

An amusing anecdote, but it highlights the question: How much Klingon am I learning from the Duolingo Klingon course? I couldn’t compose a couple of sentences without sounding silly.

I’ll return to this question in… let’s see… my current Duolingo streak is 1437 days. In 24 days I’ll have more to say.

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