tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 11 10:14:53 1999
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RE: How do I say....
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: How do I say....
- Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 11:08:36 -0700
jatlh [email protected]:
> Does anyone know how I would say, Greetings of Peace? I'm
> VERY much a novice, and I dont' think I have it right.
Welcome to the list. My name is pagh, and I am the current Beginners'
Grammarian. It's my job to help beginners learn Klingon. Whenever you have a
post you want help with, mark it for my attention by putting KLBC in the
subject line.
"Greetings of Peace". You picked a rather difficult thing to start with.
Klingon has only one "greeting" - <nuqneH>, which basically means "what do
you want". It is usually only used in a situation where an English speaker
would say something like "what do you want", but more polite. You wouldn't
normally walk up to someone and say "what do you want" to start a
conversation, and you wouldn't normally use <nuqneH> that way either.
In general, Klingons don't bother with greetings, but rather just get
immediately to the meat of the conversation. This is not considered rude,
but wasting a person's time with small talk is. If you mean "Greetings of
Peace" as a pleasantry with which you would begin an conversation, you would
translate it by saying nothing at all.
On the other hand, "Greetings of Peace" could be used when two people or
groups meet for the first time, and one wants the other to know they intend
peace. In this case, the greeting carries actual meaning, so it would not be
just discarded. It would probably be reworded though. Here are some
examples:
maSuv 'e' wIHechbe' - We do not intend to fight
naDev roj neH wInej - We seek only peace here
jaghra' maHbe' - We are not your enemy
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian