tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 04 14:29:08 1998
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RE: KLBC: Practice with -meH
KLBC - Practice with -meH
'ay' wa' -
ja' pagh:
> Here are a few English sentences to translate. They should all be
> translated with a <-meH> clause. I wrote these for tuv'el, but anyone
> should feel free to give them a try. The last one is a bit harder.
> In order to buy a new ship, I need to make lots of money.
Duj chu' vIje'meH Huch law' vIbajnIS.
> I sang to the chemvaH to calm her down.
vIjotmoHmeH chemvaHvaD vIbom.
> The prisoner escaped by making a tunnel.
narghmeH 'och chenmoH qama'.
> I obviously need to hunt before I can eat.
jISoplaHmeH jIwamnISba'.
> The bird of prey didn't have enough power to raise shields.
botjan chu'meH HoS yap Hutlh toQDuj.
'ay' cha' -
> > 'ar QIH chenmoH mogh'e' romuluS HIQ tlutlhtaHvIS?
> > "How much damage did Mogh cause while he was drinking
> > Romulan ale?"
> The minor stuff first. You misspelled <HIq>. <'ar> always goes AFTER the
> thing being quantified, not before. I'm not sure why you used <-'e'> on
> mogh. It's not wrong - I am just wondering.
I was trying to identify the head noun of the first clause so no one would
be confused by the string of nouns in the middle of the sentence. I know
that's one of the most confusing things for me when I look at what others
write, just trying to figure out which words form each clause, and how they
relate.
'ay' wej -
> > nI'qu'meH tera'Daq jIyIntaHmo' jItunchoHtaH; reghuluS 'Iwghargh
> > vIrur jay'.
> > "I have been living on Earth so long, I am becoming as soft as a
> > freakin' Regulan bloodworm."
> The second bit of the sentence is fine, but the first bit <nI'qu'meH
> tera'Daq jIyIntaHmo' ...> just doesn't work too well. Let's try to
> figure out how to say this more easily. The usual way of English
> speakers to say "for a long time" is to simply drop a <qaStaHvIS poH
> nI'...> at the beginning of a sentence and go on, but that is not very
> original.
> Here's what I suggest: <nI'qu'mo' tera' vIDabmeH poH ...>. The main verb
> here is <nI'>, and there is obviously no object. The subject is the
> interesting part: <tera' vIDabmeH poH> - "the period in order that I
> dwell on Earth". This is yet another case of a <-meH> clause modifying a
> noun, and the English translation does sound odd. The Klingon is quite
> natural though.
This is a good example of what confuses me so much. The construction:
/nI'qu'mo' tera' vIDabmeH poH/ How can you tell if /tera'/ belongs to
/nI'qu'mo'/ or with /vIDabmeH/? I realize that "Because the Earth is very
long" makes no sense, but at times it can be VERY challenging to figure it
out. Help! What do you do?
'ay' loS -
> > > reH latlh qabDaq qul tuj law' Hoch tuj puS. jIghItlhtaHvIS,
> > > jIjeHlaw' jIH'e'.
> > TRANS: The fire on someone else's face is always hottest of all.
> > *I* was apparently absentminded while writing.
> maj. The first bit is, of course, a replacement proverb.
> reH latlh qabDaq qul tuj law' Hoch tuj puS
> The fire is always hotter on somebody else's face
jIghel <qa'meH vIttlhegh nuq?> 'e' vInabpu' 'ach DaH jISov.
'ay' vagh -
> > > > 'ach chongba' botlh nItlhwIj... qablIj HI'ang!
> >
> > > jIjangQo' jay'!
> >
> > "jIjangbe' jay'!" I won't freakin' answer!
> > "yIjangQo' jay'!" Don't friggin' answer!
> Time for a little explanation of <-be'> and <-Qo'>. <-be'> is simple
> negation. <jIjangbe'> could mean "I didn't answer", "I do not answer",
> or "I will not answer", but these are all just statements of fact. If I
> want to say that I *refuse* to answer, I say <jIjangQo'>.
> Note that often non-imperative verbs with <-Qo'> get translated with
> "won't", and "won't" is a bit funny in English. Sometimes it's used in a
> simple future tense statement of fact, but it often means that the
> subject refuses to do whatever it is. Klingon does not have this
> problem. The following two sentences, which can both be translated "I
> won't sleep tonight", are quite distinct.
> DaHjaj ram jIQongbe'.
> DaHjaj ram jIQongQo'.
I looked (briefly) for the reference to this use of -Qo', but could not find
it. (and alas, I do not have my reference materials here in front of me as
I write.) I remember in the description on rovers that -Qo' was the
imperative equivalent of -be'. It explicitly said -be' cannot be used with
imperatives, and I thought that implied that -Qo' could not be used outside
of imperatives.
'ay' jav -
> >
> > > > naHlet vISuqmeH Sormey vItlhIl.
> > > > "I mine trees in order to obtain nuts."
> >
> > > I don't know if <tlhIl> can be used like this, but other
> > > than that, this is good.
> >
> > My random sentence challenger threw me a nasty word pair. How am I
> > going to use /tlhIl/ and /naHlet/ in the same sentence?
> jItlhIltaHvIS, naHlet vISop.
'ay' Soch - mu'tlheghmey chu'
bIlugh; Sor bIrur. be'nalwI' SosnI' maw' ghaHlaw' ngem Ha'DIbaHqoqvetlh.
"You are correct as a tree. That so-called forest animal is apparently my
wife's crazy grandmother."
Qo'noS noHwI''a' qaDlaHmeH bolwI' yIqem.
"Bring the traitor so that he may face the supreme judge of Kronos."
Qovpatlhmey QIp tulob!