tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 29 09:21:32 1998

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Re: KLBC - attempt at translation



---Steven Boozer  wrote:
>
> : >>                        The first officer makes some final
corrections
> : >> to her report on a pad, hands it to her ra'wI' and says: "Our
lives to
> : >> you, joHwI'"  To which the ra'wI' replies: "I accept your
pledge" as he
> : >> takes the pad.
> : >>
> : >> wa'DIch: qanob yInmeymaj, joHwI'
> : >> lit. I give you our lives, joHwI'
> : > 
> : > Remember that word order in Klingon is Object, Verb, Subject
(OVS).
> : > /yInmeymaj qanob, joHwI'/ translates what you asked for.  Should
it
> : > really be "*I* give you our lives," or "*we* give you..."? The
latter is
> : > /yInmeymaj pInob/.
> :  
> : I had thought *I* since the wa'DIch is making the pledge of behalf
of the
> crew... 
> : 
> : Kreth
> 
> .. and she hands her PADD (which presumably contains the current crew
> roster, their oaths of service, crew performance evaluations, the
ship's
> Record of Battle, etc.) to the captain, who takes it from her.  The
use of
> the first person is entirely appropriate and nicely matches the
action of
> the ritual.
> 
> Voragh

Because Kreth had used /qa-/ consistently, even when the object
*wasn't* 'you singular', I supposed it was possible that he wanted to
say we-you but was following examples and couldn't find one that
matched. I have no problem with the I-you/our, I just know how
frequently I have settled for saying something that wasn't exactly
what I wanted while speaking an unfamilar language.

==

Qov - Beginners' Grammarian

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