tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 11 13:55:30 1995
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"HolQeD" 3:4
No longer able to supress the overwhelming urge to post about the stuff in
"HolQeD," here are the thoughts and emotion that were evoked within me on my
reading of the latest edition of the KLI journal.
My apologies to all who have yet to receive it. I trust I won't have spoiled
anything for you. There was nothing *too* exciting this time.
Page 2. Big celebration.
Page 5. I just don't understand what Qanqor was so upset about.
"Buy me a drink."
{jItlhutlhmeH vay' yIje'}
Perhaps {HIje'}, but {jItlhutlhmeH} may already take care of that. I'm not
even so sure that such a sentence would crop up, given Klingons'
cultural-based tendency to avoid small talk and jump straight to the point.
Immediately stating the specific drink might be more in order in a Klingon
locale.
"Your question has two answers."
{yu'bogh mu'tlheghlIj lujanglaH cha' mu'tlheghmey}
"The problem lies not in our stars, but in ourselves."
{qay'be' 'u', 'a qay'wI' wIvu' maH'e'}
I don't really count this as the best way to translate this English sentence.
The idea of looking at stars as controllers of fate or events of the universe
is not necessarily also part of Klingon ideology. It is far too deeply rooted
in English, and I doubt the literal translation of the idiom would be
appropriate in Klingon. {wanI' qay'} or {ghu' qay'} might work for "problem,"
depending on context. This will require more thought.
"Did you receive his payment."
{DuDIlpu''a'}, {HuchDaj DaHevpu''a'}
See how simple that is?
"I speak Klingon better than you."
{tlhIngan Hol jatlhmeH, jIH po' law', SoH po' puS}
We do have canon for unprefixed {-meH} clause verbs, tho I wouldn't trust
them in all cases.
"I translate better when I am tired than when I am awake."
{jImughmeH, Doy'bogh poHwIj qaq law', Doy'Ha'bogh poHwIj qaq puS}
"If executing an evasive maneuver is efficient, then taking evasive action is
foolish."
{yapchugh junmeH wa' tuH, vaj Dogh juntaHmeH mIw'a'}
Again, those unprefixed {-meH} clauses are canon. We cope. (Check TKD bottom
of page 171.)
"Winning makes the battle worthwhile."
{Qaplu'chugh, vaj lI'bejpu' may'}
Most of these I don't count as the best or even most accurate translations,
but the biggest overall challenge was figuring out how to adopt the idioms
into a Klingon mindset as well as determining the most likely possible
context in which each sentence would be found.
It appears to me, however, that the {-ghach} problem is not so profound as
Qanqor makes it out to be.
Page 7-9. "Ugh" is the best word to describe the overall effect this had on
me.
First off, {HeghwI'} does mean "dying person" (or animal) no matter what.
Think of the verb {Hegh} first. Klingon has no real way to say "dead," except
with {Heghpu'}. And really, I don't know where Glen gets off saying that
"perfective forms are not required in Klingon." My reading of TKD 4.2.7
doesn't leave me with impression. Perfectives are not things that you can
imply very easily. Either a verb is perfective or it just isn't. Without
{-pu'} or {-ta'}, a verb just won't come across as perfective. Tense is
implied by a time adverbial, plurality is implied by verbal prefixes, but
perfective suffixes aren't just things that you can omit whenever the hell
you feel like it and expect to get the same result.
I admire Glen's detective work in discovering how the forms {De'wI'},
{chamwI'}, {HerghwI'}, etc., arose from ellipsis, but saying now that
{QoQwI'}, {chutwI'}, etc., are legitimate word formations is clearly stepping
over the line, as far as I'm concerned.
{ghajlu'wI'} and {ngeHlu'wI'} just crack me up.
So, I saw three articles this time by people prying apart basic grammatical
principles and stretching interpretations of canon to try to be able to
invent new, even more incredibly ridiculous word formations and neologisms,
Glen being the biggest stinker about this, and not even so much as a whole
paragraph of Klingon, save Okrand's barely grammatical, over-simplified
translations of the stuff on the Skybox cards that he was just hired, paid,
and given a deadline to do.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the journal. What I would like to see out of
it is more original Klingon text. Most people are simply far too lazy to
really achieve any real proficiency in the use of Klingon, in its raw written
or spoken forms. Well, guess I'm just going to have to take it upon myself to
change that.
Guido