tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 12 04:41:33 1996
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Re: translation
- From: "Mark J. Reed" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: translation
- Date: Mon, 12 Aug 96 07:41:01 EDT
- In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 12 Aug 1996 00:13:24 -0700. <[email protected]>
"A.Appleyard" <[email protected]> writes:
\ From: [email protected] (Marc Hardy) wrote (Subject: translation):-
\
\ > ... How may I translate this sentence?: "Destroying the Federation is our
\ > Honour." I've tried like this, but I think it's not correct: "Qaw' DIvI'
\ > batlh maH" ...
\
\ {Qaw' DIvI'} <would> be correct if all verbs X (including {Qaw'}) could be
\ used as verbal nouns "the act or condition of X'ing";
No, because the order is wrong. Even if *{Qaw'} were a noun meaning
destruction, "destruction of the Federation" or "the Federation's destruction"
would be *{DIvI' Qaw'}.
\ {DIvI' wIQaw' 'e' batlhmaj} = "That we destroy the Federation, is our
\ honour"; but how to make it clear that the destruction is neither actual nor
\ likely but merely hypothetical or a wish?
That sentence no verb. {DIvI' wIQaw' 'e' 'oH batlhmaj'e'} is what you were
trying to do here, I think. I don't think the original sentence requires
that the speaker/honor-possessor do the destroying. The whole construction
feels very un-Klingon to me. How about {DIvI' Qaw'lu'. maquvmeH 'e'
wIneH}? "In order that we be honored, we want the Federation to be
destroyed".
\ Would {DIvI' wIQaw'jaj 'e' batlhmaj} be correct or suitable?
This sentence still no verb.
\ Otherwise, as I said before, it would be useful if Marc revealed an "unreal
\ or hypothetical" verb suffix like the Ancient Greek "an" or "ken".
And as many of us have said before, so what? Lots of things *would* be useful
(there's that useful English conditional tense again, wouldn't it be
nifty if Klingon had one), but they AREN'T THERE. So forget about
them, make do with what we *do* have, and look for *internal*
inconsistencies to ask Dr. Okrand about - things that don't
quite make sense as given when compared only to the rest of the
language, not when compared to other languages. All of this
"Wouldn't it be nice if . . ." speculation/whining doesn't accomplish anything.
-marqoS
--
Mark J. Reed |
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