tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 09 08:03:24 1998
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Re: KLBC Poetry (the child is happy)
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC Poetry (the child is happy)
- Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 03:18:17 -0500
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, February 09, 1998 2:27 AM
Subject: Re: KLBC Poetry (the child is happy)
>In a message dated 98-02-05 07:45:35 EST, you write:
>
><< > edy jang Qov: >>
>
>---peHruS notices the transitive use of {jang}---
>
>>From discussions commented on by ghunchu'wI' and charghwI', possibly
others, I
>have picked out this lone line.
>
>Until now, I have only used {jang} intransitively, giving EdyvaD jang Qov,
for
>example.
>If {jang} took an object, I had assumed that object to be the question
being
>answered.
>
>Comments on this transitive use of {jang}. Who likes it?
We just don't know. {jatlh} definitely does not take the person being
spoken to as its object, although the prefix might indicate 1st or 2nd
person objects. {ja'} *seems* to take the person being spoken to as its
object, though it is still possible that this is also prefix shortening (but
since this sort of thing happens with great frequency in TKD itself, I tend
to resist this idea). It is also possible, though without any evidence,
that {ja'} could take the report as its object (the two types of objects
might be mutually exclusive). We know Okrand translated all of the Klingon
lines in Star Trek III, though we haven't seen all of those translated
lines. I'm very curious as to how he translated Kruge's line, "Report
status!" It might very well be {Dotlh yIja'} or even {Dotlh ja'}. However,
this is just speculation.
As for {jang}, it *seems* to be used like {jatlh} in its only appearances:
{jang 'avwI'} (Power Klingon, a couple of times in the jokes). But because
of the nature of the sentence, we don't *know* what's happening here. This
sentence might very well translate more correctly as "The guard answers
him." We just don't know.
At this point, the safest course of action is to treat it exactly like
{jatlh} when using the indirect object prefix trick. {mujang} is certainly
"he answers me," whatever the actual object of the verb is. This avoidance
allows us to deal with 1st and 2nd person objects easily, but any further
attempts to use this will result in questionable sentences. Break it into
two sentences: {ghel Edy, jang Qov}.
But suppose the object of {jang} is the question, as you suggest. We don't
have a noun for "question." So what Klingon word is a valid object for
{jang}?
SuStel
Stardate 98109.1