tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 27 15:14:11 1996
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Re: Stephen's introduction
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Stephen's introduction
- Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 18:14:18 -0400
In a message dated 96-06-27 01:09:14 EDT, peHruS wrote:
>I, peHruS, prefer {*Stephen* 'oH pongwIj'e'} because it translates back
>literally as "As for my name, it is Stephen." I prefer putting the emphasis
>that Klingon's {-'e'} carries on {pong}. The other way would translate "As
>for Stephen, it is my name."
I have often wondered if the pronouns can be thought of in the following way:
We can write a sentence like {pongwIj 'oH} "It is my name." In the sentence
{pongwIj 'oH *Stephen*'e'}, we see the same first two words. I suggest that
this can be thought of as two sentences, or at least one and a half.
Consider the sentence as such:
pongwIj 'oH . . . . . . . . . *Stephen*'e'
"It is my name. . . . I'm talking about 'Stephen.'" The first two words make
up a regular sentence using a pronoun in Klingon, and the third word explains
what the sentence is referring to.
If this interpretation is correct, then I agree with peHruS: {*Stephen* 'oH
pongwIj'e'} would make a better translation. "It is 'Stephen.' . . . I'm
referring to my name." Just like the {'e'} construction in Klingon, the
sentence is actually considered two sentences.
The only problem with this idea is the set of canonical sentences which go
along the lines of {Sojvetlh 'oH nuq'e'} (a problem unless Klingon nouns
switch places as in English "What is your name?" "My name is Stephen.") In
this case, the translation seems to be something like "It is that food . . .
What is?" Whereas I'd prefer to see "What is it . . . I mean that food?"
{nuq 'oH Sojvetlh'e'} I believe there is a canon example of {nuq} coming
before the pronoun, but I can't remember what it is. I mean, once you
established the context, you could say, {nuq 'oH}.
One minor problem (which I don't really worry about) is the {Dochvam nuq}
sort of sentences which crop up a lot. Not much to do with this post,
however.
Any comments on this would be welcome. ghoyajchu''a'?
SuStel
Hovjaj 96489.7