tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 14 10:02:03 1998
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RE: How do I say... (ATTN: pagh)
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: How do I say... (ATTN: pagh)
- Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 09:57:57 -0700
lab StaZ:
>
> >> how do I say
> >> "Dreaming of a Woman'?
> >
> > WHO is dreaming? I can't help you with a sentence unless it
> > is a complete sentence.
>
> I am sorry. It has been along time since I have done anything
> with Klingon... I used to know the rules better. I had just
> assumed that you would figure out my meaning... as you did. =)
qay'be'. No problem.
> >> All I could come up with is:
> >> bang najlI¼ be¼
> >> is this right?
> >
> > You got some of the right elements. To start with, I'm not
> > sure what that weird character in the words <najlI'> and
> > <be'> is. The character we normally use is just the regular
> > apostrophe <'>, and anything else tends to look strange.
>
> I don't know how those got that way. They started on my
> machine as <'> but somewhere in transit they ended up
> becoming the greek letter "pi"... go figure.
They seem to be mutating as they get transmitted. Now they look like the
character for one fourth. Fortunately, you can blame your computer -
that's what I do :)
> > The most important thing to remember is basic Klingon
> > sentence structure. English sentences go Subject-Verb-Object
> > (SVO), but Klingon is just the reverse: Object-Verb-Subject
> > (OVS). What you have said then is "a woman is dreaming ..."
> > instead of what you want. Another important thing is that the
> > word <naj> just means "dream", not "dream about", so there
> > is no direct way to express your sentence. You can't "dream
> > a woman" in Klingon. What you can do is "consider" someone
> > while you dream. This sounds weird in English, but
> > is perfectly natural in Klingon. What you wind up with is:
> >
> >naj. be' qel.
>
> okay, literal translation of that is Dream Female Consider.
> I guess I am confused. Is the "he is" assumed?
Remember OVS, and realize that this is two sentences. The first sentence
is just <naj>, which means "he/she/it dreams". I chose "he" in my
English because I assumed that was the one you would be using. In
Klingon, pronouns are optional, and usually left off. I could have said
<naj ghaH>, which means "he/she is dreaming".
>
> > This means "He is dreaming. He is considering a woman". If
> > someone in particular, is dreaming, that person goes in the
> > subject spot in the OVS sentence. Take Torg (torgh in Klingon),
> > for example:
> >
> > naj torgh. be' qel.
> >
> > "Torg is dreaming. He (Torg) considers a woman." translated
> > literally, or "Torg is dreaming about a woman." translated
> > into more normal English.
>
> K, same question... but the Torg is dreaming part makes sence. so,
> using logic... could I say...
>
> naj. be' qel <female name>.
>
> would that be right? meaning "he is dreaming. he is
> considering <female name>."?
You answered this one yourself in another message. maj.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian