tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 21 07:53:15 1998
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: food
Ray McGettigan wrote:
> how would you say Chinese Japanese Mexican or American food
I (Voragh) answered:
: Just like you would say Klingon food {tlhIngan Soj} (cf. Conversational
: Klingon and Skybox card S21): *China*ngan Soj, *Japan*ngan Soj,
: *America*ngan Soj. Note that these would refer to food of the Chinese,
: Japanese or American people, not the place.
:
: There is another pattern which refers to the place, not the people: e.g.
: Romulan ale {romuluS HIq}, or that famous alcoholic beverage {HIq} that
: comes from Romulus. So if you want to talk about the food of China, Japan
: or America you would just say *China* Soj, *Japan* Soj, *America* Soj.
Ray responded:
: then wouldn't it be americuS. i get that because of the romulan = romulus
Not quite. {romuluS} is the Klingon name of the place, the planet Romulus,
{romuluSngan} (literally "inhabitant of Romulus") means "a Romulan
(person)".
Klingon doesn't have adjectival forms, so you have to decide which noun you
really mean when you say "Romulan": e.g. {romuluS muD} "the Romulan
atmosphere"
vs. {romuluSngan Hol} "the Romulan (people's) language".
Since the name of the country in English is "America" or "USA", you would just
say *America* or *USA* for the place or *America*ngan or *USA*ngan for its
inhabitants.
As to what forms are best for "China" and "Japan", well, this is really a
matter of taste. But keep in mind that virtually everyone on this list reads
some English and may not recognize more native-looking forms like *Zhong guo*
or "Nihon" etc.
BTW, we've learned over time that it's best not to try to transliterate
foreign
words into Okrandian orthography here on the list, as some people are unlikely
to recognize what you've done. Just flag them with asterisks to mark them as
foreign and to save people the trouble of trying to break them down into parts
and looking them up in the various glossaries.
Qapla'!
_________________________________________________________________________
Voragh "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons lis est." Horace (Ars Poetica)