tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 20 00:12:51 1994
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Re: Father's Day Messages
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Father's Day Messages
- Date: Mon, 20 Jun 94 12:09:51 EDT
ghItlh Darren:
>I offered this:
> batlh puqpu'Daj qeqta' vavlI' 'e' puqpu'chaj qeqjaj puqpu'lI'
>without a translation. I intended something along these lines:
> May your children raise their children as honorably
> as your father raised his.
Looks like another case of thinking too Englishly. This construction just
does not work well in Klingon. I'm sure there is a way to express this in
Klingon, but only after major recasting. The possessive pronouns will have to
be massively shifted around, as odd phenomena occur in going from SVO to OVS.
Also, there's that blasted comparative. Here it's an equal comparison (...as
honorably as...) which has no known equivalent in Klingon. Not only that, but
you're quality of comparison is an adverb. We don't know how to do *that* in
Klingon either.
Phew! As you can see, maybe you ought to think of the Klingon first. Which
constructions work better for Klingon. You may not realize it, but there are
actually Klingon constructions that don't go back to English very well, so
the complaint that Klingon grammar is over-simplistic goes right out the
window. It just doesn't map to English all the time.
After recasting, here's my idea, that hopefully carries the same or a very
similar meaning to what you intended:
{nem batlh puqnI'pu' qeqmoHmeH puqpu' qeqmoH vav'e'}
where {puqnI'} = "grandchild". Well, any better ideas? Does this convey the
right meaning? vImughchu'ta''a'?
Also, to focus more on the grandkids, it could be:
{batlh puqpu' qeqmoHmeH vav qeqmoHta' vavnI''e'}
In this latter example, the perfective was used, which might make it closer
to the original English.
I took {qeq} as objectless. That's the usage I'm used to. In fact, I think
you're the first I've seen to use it transitively (and you can't be blamed).
The blame goes to Okrand, who didn't specify which verbs are transitive and
which aren't. You just have to make do with what feels right.
Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos