tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 16 11:10:13 1995
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Re: Beowulf
>Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 06:04:52 -0400
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: [email protected] (Jim Boniface)
>>> toH! jaj tIQ HoS qumwI'pu' la'mey *Dene-mo' DIQoypu', toDuj luqeqbogh
>>> joHpu'vetlh tIgh'e'.
> Can I ask what the * in the above sentence stands for or represents?
The asterisk is often used in linguistic texts to mark incorrect usage or
otherwise flag something as distinctive. Here, it's being used to mark the
word "Dene" as being a foreign word, transliterated in Klingon, and not a
true Klingon word. This is *very important*, since it serves as a clue to
the reader not to bother trying to look it up or parse it: it's probably a
proper name (it is). I think it's very important to flag words like this
if you transliterate, though I think that usually you're MUCH better off
not transliterating in the first place.
~mark