tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 09 08:17:19 1996

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Re: KLBC Preguntas

mutlhob mu'vaj:
>>>
    How would you say "Your eyes shine like stars?"  I'm most 
    interested in how to form a similie, so if this seems to un-
    tlhingan feel free to recast the phrase or even choose an 
    other example. 
<<<

On the Power Klingon tape there's a line translated as "When we 
meet, curses flow like water." (It's presented as a good thing.) 
The line is approximately
    maghomDI' vIHbogh bIQ rur mu'qaDmey
or, literally, "When we are-in-a-group, curses are-like water 
which-moves".  I may have a couple of details wrong, but I'm 
certain of the syntax of the simile; I was listening to the tape 
yesterday. (Note spelling, BTW: simiLE, not -lie. It just sounds 
that way.) 

So, for your simile, I would recommend
    wovbogh Hovmey rur mInDu'lIj

Note that I'm using as the main verb <wov> 'be light, bright', not 
<boch> 'shine, be shiny'. This distinction was discussed on this 
list some time ago, and hinges on the difference between 
EMITTING light, as stars do, and REFLECTING light, as eyes and 
(shined) noses do*. English encompasses both these meanings in the 
word "shine", but the Klingon words seem to separate them.  

(* Except Rudolph's and the Dong's, but they're neither here nor 
there.) 

If the Klingon syntax translated to "Your eyes glow like stars" 
the sentence would be metaphorical as well as a simile. (Do 
Klingons use metaphors? I would guess so. Part of the way any 
language grows is the extension of meaning from one sense to a 
related one, which is at base metaphorical.) But the literal 
meaning is "Your eyes resemble glowing stars", which can be 
literally true, since resemblance is subjective.

      marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom -- Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'!
     Subcommander Markemm, 
            Klingon Sanitation Corps -- Death to Litterbugs!

                         Mark A. Mandel
    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
  320 Nevada St. :  Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : [email protected]

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