tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Apr 25 19:38:45 1998

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Re: KLBC: Rio de Janeiro & Carnaval



Edy, something about the way you sent this message makes it difficult for me
to read it.  There are no line breaks and a lot of the {'} characters have
been turned into "ë" and "í", which appear on my screen as an e-dieresis and
an i-acute.  I can deal with it, but it would help if you could at least put
line breaks in.  Turning off "smart quotes" is always a good idea when writing
Klingon anyway. :-)

ja' Edy:
>*Rio de janeiro* vengDaq maghIQpu' wej juppu' jIH je.

Good, though the word {veng} is probably unnecessary.  You didn't vacation
in Rio's city; you vacationed in Rio itself.

>ngaj leng 'ach matIv.
>'IHqu' *Rio* veng.

Does one customarily say "the city of Rio de Janeiro"?  If so, {veng} isn't
bad.  It's not *wrong* in any case, but I'd leave it out myself.

>bochmoHqu' juH Hov(1) 'ej tujqu' pem.

{bochmoH} means "shine" as in "cause to be shiny".  {waqmey lubochmoHlu'}
One shines shoes.  You might mean just {boch} "be shiny", but I'd suggest
the word {wew} "glow".

Or maybe you *do* mean the sun causes things to be shiny; if that's the case,
maybe you could say {Hoch bochmoH juH Hov} "the Sun makes everything shine."

"Home star" is as good a way to say "Sun" as any.

>lengwI' Daq(2) law' maSuch 'ej Do' *Salvador Dali* rItlhmey DIleghlaH je.

{lengwI' Daq} is vague, but I suppose it works.  However, you need to say
{DISuch};  {Daq} here is an object, not a locative like {-Daq} the suffix.

Do you mean you saw Dali's actual pigments?  That's what {rItlh} means.
If you're referring to his paintings, {nagh beQ} "stone panel" is about
the closest thing in the Klingon vocabulary we have.

>mebpa'meyHom maQong.

You left off a {-Daq}.

>mebpa'meyvo' bIQ'a' wIleghlaH 'ej qaStaHvIS po maqeq(3).

{qeq} for "swim" doesn't do a good job here.  Perhaps {bIQDaq mamI'}?

>le' jajvammo' yuch  wISopbej.
>*Pao de Acucar*Daq maghoS.

TKD page 28 says this phrasing is somewhat redundant.  The preferred way to
say it would be {*Pao de Acucar* wIghoS}.

>qoj jen Daqvam 'ej veng wIleghlaHchu'.

There's something wrong with the first few words.  If you mean "This site
is a high cliff", you're missing an {'oH} and an {-'e'}.  You might say
{jen Daqvam qoj} "This location's cliff is high."

>noy *Rio* veng 'ej noy je *Carnaval* .

I think using {'ej} and {je} here is a bit much, but it's grammatical.

>*Brasil*vo' *Carnaval* lopno'  noy law' Hoch noy puS.

Lose the {-vo'}.  "Brasil's Carnaval celebration" works just fine without it.

>yupma' 'oH'e' je.

What's the {-'e'} doing there?  {'oH} is the only verb-like thing here, and
verbs don't get noun suffixes.

>qaStaHvIS loS jaj, bommeH mI'meH je QuvDaq(4) jaH nuvpu'.

{bommeH 'ej mI'meH}.  TKW page 5: {SuvmeH 'ej charghmeH bogh tlhInganpu'}
"Klingons are born to fight and to conquer."

Are you using {QuvDaq} as a compound "coordinate-location" or as a noun with
a locative suffix?  {jaH} doesn't take an object; it needs a locative.  TKW
page 38: {may'Daq jaHDI' SuvwI' juppu'Daj lonbe'} "When a warrior goes to a
battle, he does not abandon his friends."

Most of us use {He} for "street".  It usually doesn't matter whether or not
one is referring to the route or the physical pavement.

>QoQ Dujmey(5) law' tu'lu' 'ej chuSqu'moH.

In context, "music ships" sounds a little like a parade float.  I've never
encountered the term "alegoric car" -- is that like English "allegory" which
means characters and events portraying abstract concepts?

Whenever I see {tu'lu'} used in a sentence with another verb like {law'}, I
usually find it's a lot more straighforward to turn it around so the other
verb is the main one.  {law' QoQ Dujmey} "Music ships are many."  That also
makes the subject of the two halves of the sentence the same.

{chuSqu'moH} says these "alegoric cars" make things in general noisy.  Is
that what you meant?  Or did you just mean {chuSqu'} "they are very noisy"?

>*Samba*  QoQ lureH 'ach yupma' QapmeH 'ovchuqnIS.

KGT tells us that the word for "perform music" is {much} (page 71).
I'm not sure {'ov} is transitive; {'ovchuq} might not make sense.
I am sure that {'ovnIS} "must compete" is adequate for what you mean.

>*Sunday* jaj cha'qa' QapwI'mey.

"Sunday's day" or "the day of Sunday" is too redundant.  Drop the {jaj}.
{cha'} is probably fine, but consider using {much} again.

>qaStaHvIS *Carnaval*, Dat *Samba* boSamba'.

It's a bit contrived, but it's very nice!  You do realize, of course, that
the word {Sam} means "seek and find", and {tu'} would be a much better word
if you weren't going for the pun.

>rInDI' *Carnaval* Doy' nuvpu' 'ach qaStaHvIS DIS lopno' Dunvam luqaw'taH.

majQa'!

I'm impressed, Edy.  When I first read through this piece, I had no problems
at all understanding it (after I fixed the {'} problem, that is).  Most of my
comments are minor nit-picks and style issues.

-- ghunchu'wI'




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