Pronouns and Sentences
Klingon Grammar 1
Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Pronouns and Sentences
You now have nouns (Chapter 3) and verbs with prefixes (Chapter 4). This chapter fits them together into sentences. The surprise is the word order: Klingon puts the object first, then the verb, then the subject. This is one of the rarest orders in the world's languages.
Pronouns
Klingon pronouns are separate words, and they distinguish more than English does. Two of the third-person pronouns are for beings (people) and one for things:
| Person | Klingon | Esperanto | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | jIH | mi | I |
| you | SoH | vi | you |
| he, she | ghaH | li, ŝi | he, she |
| it | 'oH | ĝi | it |
| we | maH | ni | we |
| you (plural) | tlhIH | vi | you (all) |
| they (beings) | chaH | ili | they |
| they (things) | bIH | ili | they |
Klingon ghaH does not mark gender: it means both "he" and "she". The distinction Klingon makes is between beings and things instead. Esperanto and English make the opposite choice.
Because the verb prefix already says who the subject and object are (Chapter 4), the pronouns are often unnecessary. They are used for emphasis or contrast: jIH "I (myself)", SoH "you, and not someone else".
Object – Verb – Subject
The pattern is the same for every sentence with an object. Compare the word orders of several languages, using the types from Introduction to Linguistics 5:
| Order | Language | "The warrior sees the officer" |
|---|---|---|
| SVO | English, Esperanto | warrior sees officer |
| SOV | Japanese | warrior officer sees |
| VSO | Irish, Welsh | sees warrior officer |
| OVS | Klingon | officer sees warrior |
OVS is genuinely rare among natural languages. A few languages of the Amazon basin, such as Hixkaryana, are reported to use it, which was part of Okrand's reason for choosing it: it sounds alien without being impossible.
The singular third-person verb has no prefix (Chapter 4), so in yaS legh SuvwI' the bare root carries no information about who does what. The word order does the work: the first noun is the object and the last is the subject. This is why Klingon, which has a prefix system for the first and second person, relies on position for the third. Reversing the nouns reverses the meaning: SuvwI' legh yaS is "the officer sees the warrior".
Saying "To Be"
Klingon has no verb "to be" for identifying things. Instead, a noun is followed by a pronoun, and the pair means "X is Y":
Qualities work differently, because in Klingon a quality such as "good" is a verb, "to be good". It takes the usual prefix, and the subject follows it:
That is the structure of the famous saying you met in Chapter 1: Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam is "in order to die" followed by "is good" and "this day".
Hands-On Exercises
Translate into Klingon, using the words in this chapter: (a) "I see the ship"; (b) "The officer sees the child"; (c) "The child dies"; (d) "I am a warrior"; (e) "We are Klingons".
📄 View solutionTranslate into English and explain the word order of each: (a) puq legh SuvwI'; (b) SuvwI' legh puq; (c) Duj 'oH; (d) QaQ Duj; (e) tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh.
📄 View solutionTake the English sentence "The warrior sees the child" and write it in each word order: SVO, SOV, VSO and OVS. Then explain why third-person Klingon sentences depend on word order more than first- and second-person ones.
📄 View solutionChapter 5 Quick Reference
- Pronouns: jIH I, SoH you, ghaH he/she, 'oH it, maH we, tlhIH you (plural), chaH they (beings), bIH they (things)
- Pronouns are optional because the verb prefix shows the subject; used for emphasis
- Word order: object – verb – subject; with no object, verb – subject
- Third-person verbs have no prefix, so word order shows who does what
- "X is Y" = noun + pronoun: SuvwI' jIH, tlhIngan maH
- Qualities are verbs: jIQaQ "I am good", QaQ Duj "the ship is good"