tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 15 15:09:02 2003
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Re: KLBC: hello and translation
[I'll let the Beginning Grammarian comment on your grammar, but permit me
to quote some canon at you to answer your vocabulary question.]
naHQun wrote:
>naHQun 'oH pongwIj'e', jabwI' jIH je. Texas-Daq yIn jIH.
>
>And is there a Klingon word for "engage" or "engagement" as in "to be
>married"?
Not that we know of. We do know the words for husband and wife:
The word for "husband" is {loDnal} and that for "wife" is {be'nal}. Though
there are occasional exceptions, for the most part, neither of these words
is used in direct address (in a sentence such as {loDnal HIghoS} ["Husband,
come here"]) and neither of them typically takes the suffix of endearment
{-oy} (as in {be'naloy} ["wifey"]). (KGT 199)
but there may, in fact, be no equivalent term for get engaged, engagement,
fiancee/fiance, etc. Okrand has commented in "Klingon for the Galactic
Traveller" that
there are some words that simply do not translate. One must resort to
descriptions rather than simple one- or two-word translations, and one
must be a quite facile in the language and knowledgeable of the culture
to understand the concepts. ... So is {parmaq}, the Klingon term for an
aggressive sort of romantic feeling. (KGT 207)
The closest terms we know of are {bang} "love, one who is loved, my love"
and {parmaqqay} "romantic companion/partner, par'Machkai". Okrand says that:
... the word {bang} is indeed a noun meaning "love", but it refers to the
object of one's affection, that is, "beloved one". (st.klingon)
A similar pattern is observed for {parmaqqay}, which means "someone involved
in a romantic relationship with a specific other person" ("romantic
partner",
perhaps). The word {parmaqqay} is formed from {parmaq}, conventionally
translated "love" or "romance" (though the Klingon concept is far more
aggressive than the Federation Standard translations imply), plus {qay},
an otherwise unknown element. One may refer to one's "romantic partner" as
{parmaqqaywI'} (my parmaqqay), but one rarely uses the word in direct
address (as in, say, {parmaqqay HIghoS} ["parmaqqay, come here"]). Instead,
couples (officially married and otherwise) tend to call each other by pet
names (sometimes called endearments or hypocorisms or, in Klingon, {bang
pongmey ["beloveds' names"]). (KGT 199)
We know from a couple of DS9 episodes that being someone's {parmaqqay} is a
formally recognized, public relationship because of how often Worf fretted
that Jadzia's unorthodox non-Klingon behavior reflected badly on him. I'm
only guessing here, but I can imagine being someone's {bang} *might* be a
less formal, more private relationship. Note, however, that neither {bang}
nor {parmaqqay} necessarily imply marriage, but Jadzia was Worf's
{parmaqqay} before she became his wife.
There are two verbs for "marry": {nay} (bride does this) and {Saw}
(husband does this). There is no common verb for "marry", so we cannot
translate "Worf and Jadzia got married" literally. We have to say either
{Jadzia Saw wo'rIv} "Worf married Jadzia" or {wo'rIv nay Jadzia} "Jadzia
married Worf", assuming that these verbs are transitive. You could also
say something like {loDnal be'nal je moj wo'rIv Jadzia je} "Worf and Jadzia
became husband and wife".
And finally, the noun for "marriage" is {tlhogh}. People on this list have
suggested words for "wedding, marriage ceremony" - the two most popular
being *{tlhoghtay} and {*naltay}.
--
Voragh "Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon
- that's
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons hard!" (Montgomery
Scott, STIV)