tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jun 09 20:25:43 1996
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Re: KLBC
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC
- Date: Sun, 9 Jun 1996 22:29:12 -0500
jIpaSmo' jItlhIjneS. Please forgive the lateness of this reply.
Thomas Zeman writes:
>I've incorporated your corrections, so let me know how these are now:
>
>tlhIngan Hol vIghojtaH, suvwI'pu' Hol 'oHmo.
><I am learning (continuously) the Klingon language, because it is the
>language of warriors.>
Forgiving the miscapitalized S and the missing ' at the end, this is
grammatically correct. It's a bit odd having the reason clause after
the main verb, though; many of us think it's more "Klingon" to put it
first. However, there's no rule that says it must go there.
>jIjatlh' vIneH.
><I want to speak clearly. Literally: I want that I speak clearly.>
You seem to have lost a few letters from {jIjatlhchu'}. After putting
them back in, your sentence matches your translation.
>qep'a' wejDIchdaq jIjaH, yapchugh HuchwIj.
><I will go to the Third Convention, if my money is sufficient.>
maj. yapjaj HuchwIj! [But watch spelling; there's no Klingon letter {d}.]
>ALIEN was on the Sci-Fi channel earlier this week. It got me thinking
>about the line, "In space, no one can hear you scream." I came up with
>the following version:
>
>loghdaq soHmo', jachmeylij Qoybe'.
><Because you are in space, they do not hear your screams.> or possibly
><Because you are in space, your screams are not heard.>
The first translation is correct; "...he does not hear your screams" would
also be correct. For the second translation, see TKD 4.2.5 and read about
the suffix {-lu'}. {jachmeylIj Qoy'be'lu'} "one does not hear your screams"
or "your screams are not heard."
Why be so wordy? {loghDaq} seems fine to me as the locative for the verb
{Qoy}, and the {SoHmo'} seems unnecessary.
Actually, the phrase from Alien can be translated directly without problems.
{loghDaq bIjach 'e' QoylaH pagh} "Nobody can hear you scream in space."
>I also jotted down the following lines:
>
>tach 'el cha' veranganpu'. [Two Ferengi enter a bar.]
Since the subject is plural and the object is singular, the verb needs to
have the prefix {lu-}. Oh, and "Ferengi" is spelled {verengan}; you have
consistently misspelled it throughout your story.
>tlhIngan SuvwI' luqIH. [They meet a Klingon warrior.]
Good, you got the prefix right here. I'm not sure {qIH} is the right word
for the meaning you wanted, though. Would {tu'} or {ghom} work okay?
>tlhIngan Hol jatlhlaw' wa'DIch verangan.
>[The first Ferengi apparently speaks the Klingon language.]
This should be {...verengan wa'DIch}. Ordinal numbers come *after* the noun
(see TKD 5.2, the bottom of page 54).
>SuvwI' batlh mawbej verangan, 'ach Sovbe'.
>[The Ferengi undoubtedly offends the warrior's honor, but he does not know.]
The translation is fine, but I don't like the wording. How about using
{tlhoj} "realize" instead of {Sov}?
>qoHpu' Sov tlhIngan leghDI', vaj HoHbe'.
>[The Klingon knows fools when he sees them, so he does not kill him.]
Okay. The lack of verb prefixes makes this a bit ambiguous; you might
consider tossing in a few pronouns to clear it up, and maybe say {ghov}
"recognize" instead of {Sov}.
{qoHpu' ghov tlhIngan chaH leghDI', vaj verenganpu' HoHbe' ghaH.}
>verangan QoywI'Du' teq 'ej targhDaj je'.
>[He removes the Ferengi's ears and feeds his targ.]
The word for "ear (external)" is {qogh}. The internal organ is {teS}.
Perhaps you could make explicit the implication that he fed the Ferengi's
ears to his targ? {...targhDaj je'meH qoghDu'vam lo'.}
>verangan yIn 'ach luvuvbe'veranganpu', QoywI'Du ghajmo'be'.
>[The Ferengi lives, but Ferengi (pl.) do not respect him, because he does
>not have ears.]
The first two words are reversed: "The Ferengi lives" is {yIn verengan}.
{ghajmo'be'} would mean "not because he has" if a rover could follow a
type 9 verb suffix, but it can't (see TKD 4.3's first paragraph). You
meant {ghajbe'mo'}.
>ghojqu' cha'DIch verangan, 'ej tlhIngan Hol jatlhbe'.
>[The second Ferengi learns (emphatic), thus he does not speak the Klingon
>language.]
Again, ordinal numbers like {cha'DIch} come *after* the noun. You said
"thus" in english but {'ej} in Klingon; {vaj} would be more appropriate.
I think this would be better said {...vaj tlhIngan Hol jatlh 'e' nIDbe'}
"...thus he does not try to speak the Klingon language."
>{All right, all right, I know it's not a great story.}
jIQoch. QaQ lutlIj.
>General question: How do I shut digest mode OFF? Digests are nice for
>reading, but they're a real pain to reply to conveniently on my system.
You turn off digest mode in much the same way you selected it. Send email
to <[email protected]> with the instructions "set mail ack" in the body.
That will send you each message individually, including ones you yourself
post to the list.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj