tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 21 06:44:50 1998

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Re: chay' jura'

[on {chay'}]:

And just to add to all this, the "Holodome - Klingon Bird of
Prey" has this line in its sound chip. For those who missed
this wonder, it is a glass ball full of water with glitter in
it (yep, you pick it up and shake it) with a near hemispherical
background shield which can be rotated around the base so you
can see the B.o.P from all angles. Flip a switch on the base
and the B.o.P gets lit from below. Press the button on the base
and the lighting flickers while the sound chip plays.

There was a card with the unit translating the dialog, so
{chay' jura'} was translated as "What are your orders?".

I've always believed that {chay'} is just as slippery in
meaning as the English "how", except that it doesn't work as a
relative pronoun. By that, I mean that the question, "chay'
*Carnagie* vaSDaq jIpaw?" could be answered either with
directions on where to drive, or with the classic, "yIqeq,
yIqeq, yIqeq."

The function that {chay'} definitely does NOT fulfill in
Klingon is the relative pronoun, as in "I don't know how to get
to Carnagie Hall." {chay'} is a question word and that is the
beginning and end of what it can do. "...how to get to Carnagie
Hall" is not a question. For that function, you need a noun in
Klingon, like {mIw}, {He}, {Quv}, etc.

charghwI'

According to Steven Boozer:
> 
> >I remember that during the QAO debates someone explained that {chay'} means
> >"how, in what manner?", pointing out that {chay'} requests information on the
> >method the subject will use to accomplish an act.
> >
> >The sentence {chay' jura'} obviously comes from TKD Sec 6.4, p 70.
> >
> >In that it is translated as "What are your orders?", from the literal "How do
> >you command us?", I contend now that {chay'} is not limited to asking "how"
> >the subject is going to do something; it also comes across as "What kind of a
> >response does the subject want/expect?"  "How do you want the answer to be?"
> >
> >peHruS
> 
> {chay'} is further described in TKD p.70:
> 
>     The question word {chay'} "how?" may be used as a one-word sentence
>     meaning "How did this happen?" "What happened?" "What the --?"
> 
> If you want to see {chay' jura'?} used in context, it can be heard in an
> untranslated line of dialogue - the sergeant says {jIyajHa'. chay' jura'?} to
> Kruge after the Klingon landing party beams down to the Genesis Planet - in
> ST3, you can hear someone shouting it in the background confusion (verified
> by the Closed Captions) during the attack on Kronos One in ST6, and it occurs
> in the untranslated battle sequence heard at the beginning of CK.
> 
> Of these, it is the ST3 line which reflects Okrand's original intent, as he
> was hired to develop Klingon in order to translate the dialogue in this movie
> (c1984).  TKD was published a year later (1st ed. c1985), based on his notes
> for this movie.  ST6 followed in 1991, and CK in 1992. 
> 
> -- 
> Voragh                          "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons    lis est."         Horace (Ars Poetica)
> 
> 
>

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