tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jul 19 18:41:20 1997
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Re: What does "..." mean?
On 1997.07.18 at 10:09 AM -0700, Donald E. Vick wrote:
> Qeygh wrote:
> >
> > On 1997.07.17 at 4:57 PM -0700, [email protected] wrote:
> >
> > > How can I say in Klingon
> > > "What does xyz mean?" when I want to know the meaning of xyz.
> > > *xyz* 'oH nuq'e' ? (?)
> >
> > I would translate that as "What is *xyz*?". Which could be asking for a
> > description instead of a definition.
> >
> > Perhaps something like "*xyz* vIyaj chay' 'e' DaHech?" or "*xyz* vIyaj
> > chay' net Hech?" would be better.
> >
> > The intent here is "How do you intend that I understand *xyz*?" or "How am
> > I meant to understand *xyz*?" -- I don't claim to be fluent, so I may have
> > botched this pretty badly.
>
> That looks correct to me, but unnecessarily complicated. Back in
> the days when I had to ask for a definintion of every third word, I
> said, {chay' *xyz* vImugh?} - "How do I translate *xyz*".
I guess I didn't see the original question as asking for a translation but
rather the definition of a word or phrase.
----
Qapla' batlh je
Qeygh