tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 27 14:17:45 1998
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Re: Death to the opposition
: Is this correct at all??
:
: Hegh jaghDI
:
: maQmIgh
Not quite. If you're trying to say "When the enemy dies..." that would be
{HeghDI' jagh}. But this is still an incomplete thought in either language.
{jaghvaD Hegh} ("death to-the-enemy") is somewhat more literal, but this is
still a verbless phrase and we don't see many of these in Klingon. This may
have been Worf's instinctive English rendering of something like:
Heghjaj jagh!
May the enemy die!
You may want to consider the similar traditional no' Hol expression uttered on
agreeing to serve as a friend's cha'DIch:
ghIj qet jaghmeyjaj [sic]
"May your enemies run with fear!" (TNG "Sins of the Father")
Okrand discusses this in TKW (p.65) and renders it in somewhat more "modern"
grammar as:
jaghmeylI' DaghIjjaj, qetjaj jaghmeylI'.
May you scare your enemies, may your enemies run.
For those wondering, "Death to the opposition!" was Worf's rousing team cheer
in the recent DS9 episode, "Take Me Out to the Holosuite". He and the other
DS9 command staff were playing baseball against a team of Vulcans ... yes,
Vulcans.
_________________________________________________________________________
Voragh "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons lis est." Horace (Ars Poetica)