tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 22 10:09:44 1996

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Re: KLBC: Sentence for Martial Arts Project.



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>Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 22:35:01 -0700
>From: [email protected] (HoD trI'Qal)


>Okay, now... "from right to left".  This is definitely a spatial issue, and
>this isone of the times when you WILL use the type 5 noun suffix, -Daq
>(which is often much abused).  You will also want to use the type 5 noun
>suffix -v' ("from").  To say "from right to left", you need only say:

>   nIHvo' poSDaq

>Unfortunately, nouns with type 5's *generally* go before the object of your
>sentence (the only exception I can think of is the type 5 -'e', the
>topicalizer).  In other words, even though this is at the END of the English
>sentence, it has to come *first* in the Klingon.  Since it is associated
>with the main part of the sentence, it needs only go in front of that part,
>as sppoed to the whole thing:


>   ghommeH ghojwI'pu' ra'DI' nIHvo' poSDaq ghojmoHwI' ghom  ghojwI'pu'

>You can add in "from Junior to Senior" the same way... right after <nIHvo'
>poSDaq>.  You can either seperate them with a comma, as is done in English,
>or put a <je> after the "from right to left, from Junior to Senior"
>structure... which would make it mean "from fright to left and from junior
>to senior".  I'm going to leave that part of the translation as an exercise
>for the student. {{:)

Actually, I think you, trI'Qal, fell into a bit of a trap here too.  "From
right to left" and "from junior to senior" don't seem to go neatly as such
into Klingon.

I prefer to charghwI' approach, of doing even more recasting.  Something
like: 

mochDaj nIHDaq QamnIS Hoch nuv. / Every person must stand to the right of
his/her superior.  (or maybe it was the left, whatever).

That avoids trying to hold the whole sequence of "from/to" in Klingon, when
after all the important relationship is one-to-one.

OK, maybe people standing near each other aren't in direct command
hierarchy, but suitable choices of words can get around that.  It's the
by-twos approach that I think works better.  Unfortunately, that's not an
easy thing for a beginner, of course... but neither was the sentence to
begin with.

~mark

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