tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 28 15:14:52 1996
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Re: Klingon "raven" or "crow" was: Klingon dialects
- From: "Thomas M. Zeman" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Klingon "raven" or "crow" was: Klingon dialects
- Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 18:22:42 -0400 (EDT)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
On Thu, 22 Aug 1996, Dr. Maciej St. Zieba wrote:
> If we are talking about names - I was long wondering how the typical
> Polish girl name "Jadzia" came into Star Trek (not to mention how the
> Americans try to pronounce it: In Polish it is pronounced {yahjah} and
> is a diminutive for Jadwiga (Hedwig).
> But this is a bit out of subject of tlhingan Hol.
I have a problem with this. In my view, names are somewhat different
from other words in that they are not translatable. The name "Jad-zee-a"
is NOT the same name as "Yah-jah", even if they are spelled the same. The
two names have totally different pronunciations and only have the same
coincidental spelling because English and Polish have different sounds
assigned to the same letters. Similarly, the Polish male name "Jan" is
NOT the same name as that of the middle daughter on the "Brady Bunch", and
no one makes the mistake of thinking that Capt. Picard's first name is
actually "Gene". Thus your comment about American mispronunciation of
"Jadzia" is not correct.
In a similar vein, people frequently write to the list and ask how
to "translate" their name into tlhIngan Hol. But names are not
translatable, even though you may come up with a phonetic equivalent.
Some languages even have a different, but roughly equivalent name to
others. I remember when I was in junior high school and my Spanish
teacher insisted on calling me "Tomas", even though that isn't my name.
My name is Thomas whether I am speaking to someone in English, Spanish,
German, or tlhIngan Hol.
Thus, in my humble opinion, a name is a collection of spoken
syllables which is what is. Two names spoken differently but written
identically are still, in fact, two different names. This is particularly
true when the varying sound mappings to written characters of different
languages is taken into account.
Sorry about going on for so long. I welcome the opinions of the
real linguists on this subject.
qejwIt
_________________________________________________________________
Thomas M. Zeman " reH nuHmey tu'lu' "
" reH *Republican*pu' taHjaj !"
(Ex!)Chairman, Connecticut Division, United States Fencing Association
Prime Minister, Fat Dog Fencing Club, Wallingford, CT
University of Bridgeport: Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
EMAIL: [email protected] and/or [email protected]
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