tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Dec 06 13:07:24 1996
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Re: Why bother with pong?
- From: Amos Ezer hadani <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Why bother with pong?
- Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 22:06:47 +0200
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Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 08:34:14 -0800
From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Why bother with pong?
To: [email protected]
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>Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 15:39:07 -0800
>From: [email protected] (JEFF ZEITLIN)
>
>
>T::>>>*'orqut* jIH
> ::>>*'orqut* nuq?
> ::>>What's an 'orqut? What species is that?
> ::>>"I am an 'orqut" or "I am 'orqut", etc.....
> ::>>
> ::>It works in other languages.
> ::>"Hello, I'm Roger.
>
> ...to which the obvious immediate response is "Klingon isn't
> other languages".
>
> Different languages will have different constructs, which may
> appear idiomatic to those unfamiliar with the language. For
> example, if I correctly remember the vague memories of having
> attempted to learn Hebrew once in my youth, you can't say "I
> have ..."; the literal translation of the Hebrew that one uses
> in such a context is "To me there is ..."
Correct. Hebrew lacks a verb "to have"; it's expressed by a verb of
existence and a dative/genitive (yesh li... /to me there is.... Notably at
least in Hebrew this construction *properly* should only be used with
indefinite objects [Hebrew distinguishes definite from indefinite]. For
definite things you might say "the book is by me/under my
jurisdiction"/hasefer `etzli. Some speakers, especially foreign ones, are
less careful about this, buyt most native speakers, I think, will agree.
In fact, some foreign speakers even go so far as to use the
direct-object-marking particle on the object when it's definite, which is
completely unsupported, since it's not an object!) The same state of
affairs exists in Welsh and Sanskrit and Russian as well, I believe.
Every language have(has?) it's construction.In hebrew there is a thing called
"sleng"-tha native(like me) use it to talk fast like instead of "ma ata
omer"(what are you saying(saing?)we say "ma 'ta omer"(the same meaning).
In
tlhIngan-Hol there is a thing called Clipped Klingon.You can't directly
compare two languages,you can just transalate them so they will mean
something.That's my opinion,anyway.
loDDoq