tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 01 13:48:40 1998

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Re: KLBC -- jIlIHegh (extreme beginner)

First, I'd like to apologize for the useless "forward" I attached to the
bottom of one of my other posts....I'm not that accustomed to manipulating
mailing-list correspondence, but that was _beyond_ stupid...

In a message dated 98-01-01 15:49:51 EST, Falling writes:

>  <shrug> Oh, no, it's tons of fun......


This reminds me of something else I was thinking about:

Suppose I wanted to do  ::actions::  in Klingon.  I don't know whether the
shrugging of shoulders means anything in that culture, but if it does, or if I
obstinately want to communicate the idea to an Earth-born audience, some of
the following seem like they might work:

volchaHDu'wIj vIpep.  --  I raise my shoulders. / I shrug.    
(possibly equivalent to the chat-room-type comment   ::shrugs::)

volchaHDu' vIpep.  -- I raise [the] shoulders. / I shrug.       
(possibly equivalent to the chat-room-type comment   ::shrugs::)
I added this one without the "my" thinking of the idioms for shrugging in some
other languages, where no possessive is appropriate.

volchaHDu' peplu'.  --  The shoulders are raised.    
(probably closer to ::shrug:: except that it's a noun in this English usage.)
I can't figure out whether {peplu'} needs a prefix, actually.  Can someone
correct the grammar here?

In Spanish, a lot of verbs like this are reflexive....so it's sort of   I-
shrug-myself the-shoulders.      I-brush-myself the-teeth.    I guess it
wouldn't make sense to start dropping {-'egh} in there...?

Of course, there're probably better verbs than {pep} to sue here.  Heh...in
fact, knowing my luck, there is probably an idiom elsewhere in canon already,
and my idle, pointless experimentations are even more pointless than I
realize. ;)

---in manic 1st-day spirit,
notjISaH

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