tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 05 02:51:49 1998
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Re: "Excuse me" and "bless you"
- From: "Neal Schermerhorn" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: "Excuse me" and "bless you"
- Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 05:55:31 -0400
Please quote a little of the post you're replying to, since this isn't a ng
and the replied-to message isn't right above the other one... I have
reconstructed the thread. HItlho'Qo'.
ghItlh Thornton:
>I know that these phrases would probably be anathema to Klingons, but how
>would one say in tlhIngan Hol "excuse me" and "bless you" (when someone
>sneezes, of course). For "excuse me", I might say {pIchwIj}, which I
>derived from the English slang "my bad". For "bless you", I have tried
>{DaQanlu'jaj} "May you be protected.", but it seems stilted.
ghItlh Raquel:
>I don't mean to sound rude, but would you even want to try?
ghItlh DaPiAn0bOy:
>excuse me dont mean to be rude either but what dose raquel mean??
What I think Raquel means is that Kingons do not have nice polite words like
"Please" "Thank you" "Excuse me" (that is, I believe, from Conversational
Klingon).This does not mean that these words don't translate, but that they
would only be said in Klingon if you really MEANT it. A kKlingon never
utters <qatlho'> unless it is rerally relevant - it is not tossed about like
English "Thank you".
Someone sneezes and you go "Bless you" or "Gesunheit". Why? Custom. One of a
few remaining in our modern culture. But it's a uniquely European-etc.
custom. Austrailian aborigines probably don't say that after a sneeze.
Raquel was likely saying this: if I was at your mother's house and I dropped
a large portion of my dinner on the rug and I looked your mother square in
the eye and said "When it is dangerous, start a fire on the side," and
expected everything to be fine, she would probably think I was a little
weird. But that is a normal Klingon custom. So that's how you'd be seen if
you followed right up on some Klingon's sneeze with <DaQanlu'jaj>. And
that's why it's a purely academic and moot exercise.
BTW, Thornton, your <pIchwIj> may say "my bad" to you, but I have never
heard that slang. I read plain old "my fault". Consider also <pIch vIghaj>
"It's my fault."
Qermaq