Dogri to Klingon pIqaD: grammatical interpretation comes before changing the script
A Dogri word cannot become Klingon by changing its letters
The pIqaD option concerns the writing of the Klingon target. It does not remove the need to interpret the Dogri construction first. Sawhney describes Dogri postpositions following oblique complements and declinable adjectives carrying agreement. Those relationships must become meaningful Klingon relationships before the result is represented in a different character set.
The Klingon Language Institute explains that sounds were mapped onto the pIqaD character set used by its members. That mapping writes Klingon; it is not a grammatical conversion from Dogri. If the underlying target confuses an adjective with a clause or a noun with a verb, changing its visible symbols preserves the mistake rather than resolving it. The Roman forms below identify the attested grammatical examples being discussed.
The same-looking suffix can have different grammatical jobs
KLI teaching notes distinguish -pu' on a noun, marking a plural, from -pu' on a verb, marking perfective aspect. They also distinguish noun and verb uses of -lI'. A Dogri plural ending is therefore not a reason to attach a familiar-looking Klingon syllable to whichever target word seems nearest. Its word class determines what the addition means.
This matters when a short Dogri phrase describes several people completing an action. Plural participants and an action's aspect are independent pieces of information. Confusing them can turn a statement about number into a statement about completion. A pIqaD rendering may make the common suffix harder for a Roman-script learner to recognize, but its grammatical distinction still applies.
A cause expressed by a noun differs from a cause expressed by a clause
The KLI illustrates vavwI'mo', because of my father, and jIghungmo', because I am hungry. Both use a reason-related ending, but one forms a noun expression and the other a clause. A Dogri source naming a person as the reason does not automatically assert that the person performed an additional action. Conversely, a complete causal statement must retain its predicate.
Dogri's postpositional organization can encourage a translator to look for a single equivalent after the same noun. In Klingon, the relevant decision includes whether the reason is a noun phrase or an entire clause. The KLI assigns different grammatical types to the two -mo' suffixes even though their forms coincide. This is a structural distinction that script conversion cannot decide.
An adjective can affect where the reason ending appears
The KLI further gives vavwI' HoSmo', because of my strong father. Here the reason ending appears after an adjectival verb in the noun phrase. Sawhney's Dogri adjective illustrations place the modifier before its noun. A translator carrying that source arrangement into Klingon could consequently attach the reason information at the wrong boundary.
Identify the whole source noun phrase before assembling the target: the owner expression, the person described and the quality belong together. Otherwise, a reason attached to the noun phrase may be misread as a separate claim about being strong. The written result needs to preserve the construction, not merely every source word.
KLI describes a developed convention of writing pIqaD horizontally from left to right. Its page also distinguishes this community usage from historical decorative screen glyphs. A useful Dogri translation into this option must therefore contain actual Klingon wording represented through the intended writing convention, rather than symbols chosen only for their appearance.
Language references