Nouns
Klingon Grammar 1
Course 1 · Chapter 3 · Nouns
Klingon words are built by adding suffixes to a root, one after another. This is the agglutinative pattern described in Introduction to Linguistics 4, the same one you met in Hungarian. A noun is a root plus up to five suffixes, and the suffixes always come in a fixed order. Klingon has no articles (no the or a) and no grammatical gender.
Noun Roots
The root is the bare noun. Several roots from this course so far, and a few new ones:
| Root | Meaning | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Duj | ship | thing |
| Hol | language | thing |
| puq | child | being |
| yaS | officer | being |
| SuvwI' | warrior | being |
| tlhIngan | Klingon | being |
| ghop | hand | body part |
| qam | foot | body part |
Two nouns placed together make a compound in which the first modifies the second, as in tlhIngan Hol "Klingon language".
The Five Types of Noun Suffix
| Type | Job | Suffixes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | size and affection | -'a' (big), -Hom (small), -oy (dear) |
| 2 | plural | -pu' (beings who use language), -Du' (body parts), -mey (everything else) |
| 3 | qualification | -qoq (so-called), -Hey (apparent), -na' (certainly, definite) |
| 4 | possession and "this/that" | the thing owned is not a language-user: -wIj my, -lIj your, -Daj his/her, -maj our, -raj your (plural), -chaj their; the thing owned is a language-user: -wI' my, -lI' your, -ma' our, -ra' your (plural) (-Daj and -chaj are shared); -vam this, -vetlh that |
| 5 | syntax (what the noun does in the sentence) | -Daq at/in, -vo' from, -vaD for, -mo' because of, -'e' topic |
You use only the suffixes you need, but those you use keep the order: Type 1 before 2, 2 before 3, and so on. That fixed order is the same rule of rank that governs the verb suffixes (Chapters 6 and 7).
Type 2: Three Plurals
Klingon chooses a plural by what the noun refers to, which is more than English requires. The English plural -s works for everything; Klingon asks whether the noun names a being that can use language, a body part, or anything else:
Klingon also leaves the plural off when a number makes it clear, much as Hungarian does (három ház, not három házak). The numbers one to five are wa', cha', wej, loS and vagh, and the number comes before the noun: wej puq "three children".
Type 4: Possession and "This/That"
Possession is a suffix, as in Hungarian. Klingon has two sets of possessives, chosen by what is owned: one for things that cannot use language (DujwIj "my ship") and one for beings that can (puqwI' "my child"). Compare:
| English | Hungarian | Esperanto | Klingon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| my ship/house | my house | házam | mia domo | DujwIj |
| your | your house | házad | via domo | DujlIj |
| his/her | his house | háza | lia domo | DujDaj |
| this | this house | ez a ház | ĉi tiu domo | Dujvam |
Type 5: What the Noun Does
Type 5 suffixes play the part that prepositions play in English, and that case endings play in Hungarian. They attach to the noun, at the end:
Building a Full Noun
Suffixes stack up in rank order. A noun with a plural, a possessive and a locative:
Read such a word from the left: the root first, then each suffix in turn, with the last suffix saying what the noun does in the sentence.
Hands-On Exercises
Give the plural of each, choosing the right suffix: (a) SuvwI' (warrior); (b) ghop (hand); (c) Hol (language); (d) tlhIngan (Klingon); (e) Duj (ship). Say why a number such as cha' (two) makes the plural suffix unnecessary.
📄 View solutionBuild the Klingon noun for each (in (e) the thing owned is a language-user, so use the matching possessive form): (a) "my ship"; (b) "their children"; (c) "that officer"; (d) "from Qo'noS"; (e) "for our warriors". Present each as root + suffixes first, then written together.
📄 View solutionBreak each word into root and suffixes, and give each suffix's type number and meaning: (a) yaSpu'chaj; (b) DujmeywIj; (c) Qo'noSDaq; (d) puqpu'vetlh. Then explain why Dujwijmey would be rejected as a word, even if the spelling were corrected.
📄 View solutionChapter 3 Quick Reference
- Noun = root + suffixes in the order Type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; no articles, no gender
- Plurals: -pu' beings who use language, -Du' body parts, -mey everything else
- Possession: -wIj -lIj -Daj -maj -raj -chaj (thing owned not a language-user); -wI' -lI' -ma' -ra' (thing owned a language-user); this/that: -vam -vetlh
- Type 5: -Daq at/in, -vo' from, -vaD for, -mo' because of, -'e' topic
- Numbers come before the noun; with a number the plural may be omitted
- Two nouns together: the first modifies the second (tlhIngan Hol)