tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 17 07:29:19 1998
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Re: -pu'
- From: Robyn Stewart <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: -pu'
- Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 07:22:57 -0700 (PDT)
---Anthony Appleyard <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> [email protected] (Alan Anderson) wrote:-
> > Do you want all existing copies of TKD to be recalled and
destroyed because
> > they aren't clear enough?
> jItlhIj. Qo'. 'ach lI', (copy)mey nablu'taHbogh (print)lu'bogh
> lughmoHlu'chugh
> Sorry. No. Only, it would help if future printings of it were
revised.
Yikes, are you using some kind of program to translate? The Klingon
here looks like something out of AltaVista's Babelfish.
Have another think about what your sentence means, and try writing it
yourself using Klingon tools for Klingon ends.
> > The proper explanation is obvious in the audiotapes.
> paq mob je' ghotpu' law', ghogh (tape)mey je'be'.
I see you want to say "the book alone," which works in English, but
that is because in English alone is an adjective and an adverb (look
it up) and in "the book alone" it serves as an adverb. What you've
said translates as "the alone book." Use /neH/ after the noun. That
has exactly the meaning you are looking for. Also use the prefix
/lu-/ on /je'/: multiple purchasers one book.
I can tell you want to write complex, sophisticated Klingon, but very
often what you do instead is translate complex sophisticated English,
not word-for-word like Paramount, but phrase-for-phrase, without
regard for what the phrases really mean in Klingon. If you can't yet
think in Klingon, and you want to say something well, instead of
writing a sophisticated sentence in English and translate, write the
shortest, most direct sentence you can that expresses the idea you
have, and translate that. Klingon sentences are shorter than English
ones. What makes people go "oooh, *that's* good Klingon," is not long
elaborate sentences, or sentences that closeley match articulate
English. It's punching the idea out in a uniquely Klingon way. If a
beginner translates a really good Klingon sentence into English, often
what s/he comes up with will sound like stilted, horrible English.
Aim for the best Klingon meaning, not the best phrase-for-phrase
English translation.
==
Qov - Beginners' Grammarian
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