tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 28 18:58:26 1996

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Re: KLBC - Trick or Treat

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>Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 07:50:28 -0800
>From: Marc Paige <[email protected]>
>
>Since it's almost Halloween, my wife asked me to
>translate "trick or treat". Here 'tis:
>
>SajnobHom HInob pagh qatojqang!
>
>literally:
>Give me a treat (small food gift) or I will trick/deceive) you!
>
>I am using a compound noun for "treat", <Saj + nob> + Hom.

Well, "Saj" is actually "pet (n)"; you meant "Soj"/food.

Eh, you're working hard for little gain; "nob" is quite good enough for
"treat", or as someone else suggested, "pop."  Or "Soj."  Don't force every
word in English to map to a unique Klingon one.

As it happens, I recall from a few years ago listening to Lawrence giving a
talk about Klingon in a museum, and it happened that one example he gave
was his own efforts at "Trick of treat!"

He said his first try was "chobelmoH qoj qatoj", which he rather liked,
because it had a nice cadence, and it used "qoj" instead of "pagh",
implying "you'll please me, or I'll trick you... and hell, I might trick
you anyway!"  It was missing the imperative nature, though (note, BTW, that
Okrand's "surrender or die" doesn't use "pagh" either: bIjeghbe'chugh vaj
bIHegh.  It could be that the conjunctions aren't used for such implied
threats in Klingon as they are in English).  I remember Krankor, I think,
not really liking "toj"... it might have different connotations in Klingon
culture.  I think Lawrence's favorite was just "DaH HInob!" "Give it to me
NOW!!!" (using HI- as a contraction for jIHvaD and an implied direct
object, a construction I personally disagree with; it seems you really can
only use that contraction jazz when there is something in the "true" Direct
Object place, even as you can't use an indirect object in English without a
direct object: "John bought Mary a bouquet of flowers" has "Mary" in a very
different role than "John bought Mary.").  Something like that is probably
fine. :)

~mark

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