Adverbial

An adverbial or adverb is a type of word which describes the manner of the activity of a sentence. This could be when or how an activity takes place (1).

In English, adverbs often end -ly (suddenly, quickly, slightly, etc). Other adverbs are time elements (today, last night, etc) and frequency elements (twice, always, never. etc). Several adverbials (currently 11) are found to have the verb suffix -Ha' to reverse the base meaning, but these are attested words and does not mean we can make our adverbials in this fashion. There are afew combinations with -Ha' which Okrand definitely rejected.

Types of adverbials

For a very long time, the given set of adverbials from TKD has never changed. Only few words were added lately, either by adding the suffix -Ha' or by finding an entirely new word.

Basic adverbs

Klingon	Translation	Source
batlh	honorably	TKD
batlhHa'	dishonorably	KGT
bong	accidentally, unintentionally	TKD
chaq	perhaps	TKD
chIch	on purpose, purposely	TKD
DaH	now	TKD
De'chel	by the way, parenthetically	qep'a' 2020
Do'	luckily, fortunately	TKD
Do'Ha'	unluckily, unfortunately	KGT
ghaytan	likely	TKD
ghaytanHa'	unlikely	Radio Times
ghIq	after that, subsequently	HQ 8.3, p.4, Sept. 1999
jaS	differently	TKD
jaSHa'	similarly	qep'a' 2012
jay'	intensely (invective)	TKD
loQ	slightly, a little bit	TKD
loQHa'	considerably, appreciably	paq'batlh 2nd ed.
meQHam	ironically, counterintuitively, incongruously	qep'a' 2021
motlh	usually, typically, expectedly	KGT
neH	only, merely, just	TKD
neHHa'	not only	paq'batlh 2nd ed.
nIteb	alone	TKD
nItebHa'	together	BoP
nom	fast, quickly	TKD
not	never	TKD
ngugh	then, at that time	HQ 8.4, p.8, Dec. 1999
pay'	suddenly	TKD
pe'vIl	forcefully	TKD
pe'vIlHa'	gently	qep'a' 2012
pIj	often, frequently	TKD
pIjHa'	seldom, infrequently	KGT
qen	recently	s.k
QIt	slowly	TKD
reH	always	TKD
roD	regularly, habitually	KGT
rut	sometimes	TKD
SetqIn	alternatively, instead, rather	Alice in Wonderland
SIbI'	immediately	TKD
SIbI'Ha'	later, eventually	Monopoly 2011
tugh	soon	TKD
tlhoS	almost	KGT
tlhoy	overly, excessively	HQ 8.3, p.2, Sept. 1999
vabDot	even, including, also	Monopoly 2011
vaj	thus, in that case, so, accordingly, then	TKD
wej	not yet	TKD
wejHa'	already, before now, as of now	qepHom 2020
'eQ	just, a moment ago	qepHom 2019

Time Stamps

Some "time" nouns can function as adverbials.

Klingon	Translation	Klingon	Translation
DaHjaj	today	DaHjaj po	this morning
wa'Hu'	yesterday	wa'Hu' ram	last night
wa'leS	tomorrow	wa'leS po	tomorrow morning

See also the list of ➞ time vocabulary

Numbers

Adverbials that indicate "frequency" can be made from numbers by adding the suffix -logh (2).

Number	Translation	Frequency	Translation
wa'	one	wa'logh	once
cha'	two	cha'logh	twice
chorgh	eight	chorghlogh	eight times

Placing adverbials

In Klingon, an adverbial usually comes before the object-verb-subject construction which it describes. If there is a "time" adverbial, it precedes any other adverbial:
DaHjaj nom Soppu' Today they ate quickly (3)

An adverbial may be placed between the object and verb if the object has the -'e' suffix:
HaqwI''e' DaH yISam Find the surgeon now!

The question words ghorgh (when), qatlh (why), and chay' (how) come at the beginning of the sentence, before anything else. (4)

Intensification

The adverbial jay' is unique in that it is placed at the end of a sentence and effectively turns the entire sentence into an invective (5).

qaStaH nuq?	What is happening?	qaStaH nuq jay'?	What the #$%@ is happening?
mIch 'elpu'	They've entered the sector	mIch 'elpu' jay'	They've entered the #$%@ sector

Only / merely

The adverbial neH is unique in that it follows the verb and has the effect of minimizing or trivializing the event.
qama' vIqIppu' neH I merely hit the prisoner.

If neH follows a noun, it means only, alone: yaS neH yIqIp Hit only the officer!

neHHa' works like neH and means not only: Hegh HoD neHHa' Captain wasn't the only one who died.

neH and neHHa' are the only adverbials that can follow a noun.

For more details and canon examples, see the word entry ➞ neH.

Exclamations

Some adverbials can occur alone, functioning much like an exclamation. nom Quickly! wej Not yet!

References

1 : The Klingon Dictionary 5.4, p. 55

2 : The Klingon Dictionary 5.2, p. 55

3 : The Klingon Dictionary, 6.7

4 : The Klingon Dictionary, 6.4

5 : The Klingon Dictionary 5.4, p. 177