tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 12 13:30:37 1996
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Re: 'e' and all that rot...
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>Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 01:05:09 -0700
>From: "A.Appleyard" <[email protected]>
> [email protected] wrote:-
>> ... A tagline thought: Someone's bumper sticker at the qep'a' read, "Human
>> by birth, Klingon by choice". I got as far as "Human jIboghta'" then ran
>> into trouble with the second bit ...
> Looks like yet another case where we are stuck for lack of an adverbial
>suffix. A Welsh construction that I came across gave me an idea to translate
>"X-ingly" as {XDaq} or {XghachDaq}, e.g. "he wrote this book drunkenly" as
>*{chech(ghach)Daq paqvam ghItlhpu'}, literally "at drunkenness": sounds like a
>reasonable metaphor.
Not too bad; I still think "paqvam ghItlhtaHvIS chechwI' Da" or "chechwI'
DataHvIS paqvam ghItlh" or even "chechlaw'taHvIS paqvam ghItlh" are better,
and what's more aren't controversial. Anyone have any major problems with
them? -Daq doesn't seem to have all that much idiomatic meaning in canon
(aside from the "SoHDaq qeylIS qa' yInjaj" toast, which is arguable), and
besides, Welsh uses "yn" for darn near everything. Technically, the "yn"
you're talking about in Welsh isn't even a preposition, and doesn't behave
like the "yn" that means "in" (it causes Soft Mutation while the
preposition causes Nasal Mutation).
As to "Human by Birth, Klingon by choice..." (My mail seems to have gotten
messed up over the weekend; assuming it's even all there it's disordered).
Hmm. "Human jIboghta'" doesn't quite work either, since what part of
sentence is "Human" there? Can't be the subject... can't be the object (or
you'd have vI-); after all, what could the object of "be born" be? I think
the linguistic term for this is the "predicative" case, and I don't think
we've seen any trace of it so far in canon. We COULD do something like
"boghpu'ghachwIjmo' Human jIH", but that "boghpu'ghach" is hideous.
"jIboghDI' Human jIH" is better, probably the best of the lot. "jIboghmo'
Human jIH" is confusing. "Owing to the manner in which I was born, I am
human," is okay, but long-winded and opens up the "ship in which I fled"
problem in another form.
Then... "yInwIj wIvmeymo', tlhIngan jIH" is probably quite good. Or
"jIwIvta'mo' tlhIngan jIH."
~mark
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