tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 09 12:18:30 1998
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Okrand Forum: Fw: maHeghlaw'lI'
- From: "Qermaq" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Okrand Forum: Fw: maHeghlaw'lI'
- Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 03:20:35 -0400
-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Okrand <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: startrek.klingon
Date: Thursday, July 09, 1998 02:58 PM
Subject: Re: maHeghlaw'lI'
>Qov (and others) bring up an interesting point about
>writing in Klingon.
>
>The verb for "write" in the sense of "compose" is /qon/,
>literally "record." This is used for songs and also for
>literary works (poems, plays, romance novels, and so on).
>As has been pointed out, it's as if the song or story is
>somehow out there and the "writer" comes into contact with
>it, extracts it (to use Qov's nice phrase), and records it.
>
>The verb usually translated "write," /ghItlh/, refers to
>the physical activity of writing (moving the pencil around,
>chiseling, etc.)
>
>The question is, if you can /ghItlh/ it, must you also
>/qon/ it? That is, is everything that is written down the
>result of composition (in the sense described above)?
>
>The answer is "not necessarily." There's another verb,
>/gher/, which doesn't have a straightforward equivalent in
>English, but which has sometimes been translated (not
>entirely satisfactorily) as "formulate" or "compile" or
>"pull together." The idea seems to be that of bringing
>thoughts together into some kind of reasonably coherent
>form so that they can be conveyed to someone else.
>
>Thus, one would usually say /naD tetlh gher/ "he/she
>compiles the Commendation List" or "he/she writes the
>Commendation List" (/naD/ "commendation," /tetlh/ "roll,
>scroll, list," /gher/ "he/she compiles it").
>
>(Maltz laughed at, but accepted, /Soj tetlh gher/ for
>"he/she writes the grocery list" [/Soj/ "food"].)
>
>One would probably /gher/, rather than /qon/, a suggested
>list of readings, a gazetteer, a simple menu, or the
>instructions for assembling a toy (assuming the latter is
>not really an exercise in creative writing).
>
>One might also say /QIn gher/ "he/she formulates a message"
>or, more colloquially, "he/she writes a message" (/QIn/
>"message," /gher/ "he/she formulates it"). But now it
>begins to get tricky. Using /gher/ here implies that the
>writer of the message was passing along some information he
>or she got elsewhere, such as scribbling down a telephone
>message. Saying /QIn qon/ "he/she composes a message" or
>"he/she writes a message" (literally "he/she records a
>message") suggests that the writer is presenting some new
>information as opposed to merely passing something along.
>It may also imply that the written message has some sort of
>literary merit, and thus be a compliment.
>
>But not always. /HIDjolev qon/ "he/she composes the menu"
>(/HIDjolev/ "menu," /qon/ "he/she composes it") suggests
>that the speaker thinks the list of available fare is
>written with a certain literary flair. This is not likely
>to be said of menus in Klingon restaurants (whose menus, if
>posted at all, tend to be rather pithy), and thus could
>easily be taken as an insult.
>
>Similarly, something like /bom gher/ "he/she formulates the
>song" (/bom/ "song") would be taken as a disparaging
>comment about the song or its composer (and is, in fact,
>sometimes heard when the song in question is of non-Klingon
>origin).
>
>This should help somewhat, but it will no doubt raise
>additional questions about usage. Maltz seems to be
>willing to try to tackle them as they come along.
>
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