tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 10 11:20:49 1998
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: 2nd exercise: tlhIngan maH
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: 2nd exercise: tlhIngan maH
- Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 11:17:35 -0700
At 12:41 98-05-07 -0700, you wrote:
}Hi all!
}
}I am still having a pretty good time studying Klingon!I recently started
}reading David Barron's qeylIS drama (from KLI) and I enjoy it very much.
}David, thanks for this! I am currently translating a part from "The Klingon
}Way" as an exercise.
That's an unnecessarily frustrating tsk for you. As is my policy with
translations I'll point out the major problems, but not do the translation
for you.
}For those of you who don't have this book, this is what it says about the
}Klingon saying :
}
}"tlhIngan maH! (We are Klingons!)
}
It is used not only in the throes of battle
}but on any other joyous occassion as well. When Kahless the Unforgettable,
}who united the Klingon Empire, was cloned years later, the replica retained
}the ancient Klingon attitudes. He said to Gowron, the leader of the Klingon
}High Council, "You have no joy, Gowron. Is your heart so filled with
}distrust and suspicion that you have forgotten what it is to be truly
Klingon?""
}
}In order to translate this into tlhIngan Hol I rendered it into:
}
When Kahless, whom one can not forget, and who has made one
}the Klingon Empire, was caused to take form again, he truly possessed the
}Klingon traditions. Kahless the Second said to Gowron, who was leading the
}Klingon High Council:" You don't possess pleasure, Gowron. Distrust has
}filled your heart and you are very suspicious. Due to those things you have
}forgotten what you are while you are a Klingon".
}
}And this is what I concocted for the Klingon version:
}
}tlhIngan maH!
}
} tlhInganpu'vaD bel'a' mu'mey HoS law' Hoch HoS puS bIH mu'meyvam'e'.
}This is the strongest expression of joy among Klingons and probably the most
}frequently heard klingon phrase.
}As for these words, they are the words of the strongest great pleasure for
}Klingons.
You've tried to combine two idiomatic structures. I read it as ...
*"For Klingons, these words are words of superlative pleasure are stronger
than anything."
The structure {X A law' Y A puS} is a complete sentence in itself, and we
don't know enough about how it works to make it into a noun clause to be
used as the object of another verb.
}mu'meyvam pIj luQoylu'bej.
}One certainly hears these words often.
The adverb should precede the OVS. See section 5.4.
}may' bepmey tu'lu'taHvIS mu'meyvam luQoylu' 'ej
}wanI'mey Quch qaStaHvIS mu'meyvam luQoylaHlu'.
}One hears these words while
}there are battle agonies and one can hear these words while pleasant events
}are happening.
To be strictly correct, {lutu'lu'taHvIS} but -lu' is often missed.
Happy events are the subject of qaS not the object, and there has been
serious debate on this list regarding whether an event can be happy. {-lu'}
and {-laH} are both type 5 suffixes. You must pick one or the other, not both.
} lIjlaHbe'lu'bogh 'ej tlhIngan
}wo' wa'moHta'bogh qeylIS chenqa'moHDI' tlhIngan lurDechmey ghajqa' ghaH.
"Kahless the Unforgettable" is rendered {qeylIS'e' lIjlaHbe'bogh vay'} and
I'd guess that this epithet can't be altered anymore than "Alexander the
Great" or "Ivan the Terrible" get called "Great Alexander" and "Ivan the Nasty."
}tlhIngan yejquv DevtaHbogh qowronvaD jatlh qeylIS cha'DIch <<bel Daghajbe',
}qowron. tIqlIj tebta' voqHa'ghach 'ej bIpIHqu'. Dochmeyvetlhmo' tlhIngan
}SoHtaHvIS nuq SoHtaH 'e' DalIjpu'!>>.
The relative clause with a type five on the object isn't completely accepted
by everyone. I spent a while trying to decide whether not mentioning it or
mentioning it as less likely to start another war about it.
}I could not find a word for 'unite' so I made up 'wa'moH'.
wa' is not a verb so you can't put a verb suffix on it. Did you consider
tay'moH?
Qov [email protected]
Now on ICQ: 12235599