tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 27 12:07:34 1998

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Re: KLBC - Qu'vatlh! qep'a'Daq jIjaH vIneH!

---Burt Clawson  wrote:
>
> KLBC - Qu'vatlh!  qep'a'Daq jIjaH vIneH!

chaq wa' nem.  chaq nISuch tlhInganpu'.

> jIQosmo' Qov 'oy'naQ vIHutlh DachtaHvIS.
> "I miss Qov's painstick while she is away."

I think you've put your type-9 in the wrong place.  I believe you're
going for a literal translation of "I'm sorry because I lack Qov's
painstick while she is away," and you've come up with "Because I am
sorry, I lack Qov's painstick while she is away."

See what you've done there?  You need to put the -mo' on the verb that
is the cause of the other verb.

Maybe:

DachtaHmo' Qov, 'oy'naQDaj vIHutlh, vaj jIQoS.
"Because Qov is away, I lack her painstick, thus I am sorry."

> qIDqoqwIj wa'DIch:
> 
> qatlh tlhIngan toQDuj leghlaHbe' DIvI'may'Duj?
> "Why couldn't the Federation battle cruiser see the Klingon
> bird-of-prey?"
> 
> luSpet 'em So'lI'.
> "It was hiding behind a black hole."

tlhoS 'ach qagh DaHevbe'.  When you put /luSpet 'em/ in the object
position of the verb /So'/, it appears to be the object.  So what
you've said is that the toQDuj was hiding the area behind a black
hole.  How or why they would do this is unknown. :)  What you need
here is the locative (I know, /'em/ looked like it was already a
locative, but you still need /-Daq/.  /luSpet 'emDaq So'lI'/ I might
translate that as "It was going behind the black hole to hide" or "ot
was getting into position behind the black hole," because as you know
/-lI'/ indicates a process with a definite stopping point.  At the
time the ship is flying into position, checking to make sure its
radiation signal is hidden and its transponders off, and figuring out
how not to get sucked into the hole, I'd use /So'lI'/. Once it was
there, hidden on an ongoing basis, I'd likely say /So'taH/, even if it
was hidden for a particular purpose and intended to leave.

> jIHeghchu', "mua-ha-ha-ha"

Are you going for "I slay me"?  You've said "I die completely."  

> qIDqoqwIj cha'DIch:
> 
> 'ar moQ wov choHmoH tlInganpu'?
> "How many Klingons does it take to change a light-bulb?"

/moQ wov/ is pretty understandable for lightbulb. The word /'ar/ goes
*after* the *singular* noun it's asking for the count of.  Have
another look at the section on question in chapter 5.  So maybe:

moQ wov choHmoH tlhIngan 'ar.
"How many Klingons change a light bulb?"

The quibble here is whether "changing" a light bulb implies replacing
it, to a Klingon, or just altering the existing one.  It's also a
little vague.

More elaborately, and probably unnecessarily so:
chu'bogh moQ wov lanlu'meH tlhIngan 'ar poQlu'.
"How many Klingons are required in order to place a new light bulb?"
(The Klingon here is "light bulb which is new" because Klingon doesn't
allow stacked adjectives like English).

> pagh.  verenganvaD Qu' 'oH.
> "None.  That's a job for a Ferengi."

Hmm, /verenganvaD/  seems to me to imply that the Ferengi receives the
benefit or detriment of the task, not so much that it should do the
job.  I'd say just /verengan Qu' 'oH/ "It's a Ferengi's job."

> jIHegh 'e' vItaH.
 
/taH/ doesn't take an object.  If you want to say "I go on dying"
simply say /jIHeghtaH/ or /jIHeghlI'/. (At this point I suspect you
mean /Hagh/ not /Hegh/ but that's between you and your dictionary).

Qov - BG?
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