tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 06 08:48:02 1998
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: KLBC (was KLBG)
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC (was KLBG)
- Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 08:44:54 -0700
lab qulvIghro':
> How'd I do on the following?
>
> qa'vIn juHmeyDaq vIjaH vIparHa'
> I like to go to coffee houses.
"coffee house" is a pretty specific term in English, and I don't think
it works in Klingon. I suspect a Klingon would think something like "the
house where the coffee lives ?!?!??".
The only real distinction between a "coffee house" and a "bar" is that a
bar serves alcoholic beverages and a coffee house doesn't. There are
usually significant differences in atmosphere and clientele, but
fundamentally, both are places to drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic)
beverages, socialize, and maybe snack a bit. Neither serves enough food
to qualify as a restaurant.
Since Klingon attitudes toward drinking are quite different, I don't
think Klingons would make that distinction. I suspect a Klingon would
call a coffee house a <tach>, or maybe a <qa'vIn tach>, and wonder why
he can't get a proper <ra'taj>. . . nuq 'oH "Raktajino"-vam'e' jay'.
ra'tajqoqvam vItlhutlhQo'. jIHvaD qa'vInna' HoS yIqem 'ej chonuQ 'e'
yImev.
After that unnecessary rant, I have a couple more corrections. The
prefix on <jaH> should be <jI-> because the <qa'vIn tachmeyDaq> phrase
is not the object of the verb. Also, <jaH> is a pretty generic word, and
there are more specific words that might capture your meaning better.
After all, when you go to a coffee house, you enjoy being there more
than the journey to get there, yes? You could say <qa'vIn tachmey vISuch
...>, or you could say <qa'vIn tachmeyDaq jItlhutlh ...>.
Finally, you left out the word <'e'> before <vIparHa'>. You could also
change <vIparHa'> to <vItIv>. Here's my suggestion for the whole thing:
qa'vIn tachmey vISuch 'e' vItIv.
> 'oy'Ha' nItu'jaj mu'meyvam
> May these words find you well. (or something like that!)
This is the sort of thing that is just not a good idea to translate
literally. Klingon is just too direct for this kind of politeness. The
closest you could get to this sentiment would probably be simply
<bIpIvjaj>.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian