tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 11 17:35:19 2003
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Re: literal translations - KLBC
You send this as KLBC, but there is no grammar question.
And since the last line says "Can anyone suggest ... ?" anyone is allowed to answer to this message.
"Tree d'Eris" wrote.
>I don't suppose that the KLI will suddenly change the way they translate
>phrases between English and Klingon just for me. Can anyone suggest a
>strategy to help me with this ? I'm all parsed out.
Short answer: get used to it!
;-)
Better answer:
When learning a language, literal translations are not always the best translations, nor is it always
possible to translate at all. "hasta la vista" is literally "until the view". That doesn't say anything about
the meaning. In english they might say "farewell". And literally, this says "have a nice trip". Now in
Klingon, one does not "have" a trip. {leng 'IH yIghaj} sounds as bad as "me good man live in city
big". Both sentences will be understood, but recognized as being wrong.
Literal translations are only to indicate what the different words mean. But there is never the case
that you have only one way to translate a sentence, especially from Klingon to english.
Maybe I'm talking too much around the problem,
>Example from this months HolQeD - " DorDI' jar mejpu'. Literally this
>sentence means When the month ended, he/she left "
What do you call "literally"?
The most literal would be
"as soon as ends; month; he/she left"
>Now for purposes of me
>trying to get my parsing and grammar right, surely a literal translation
>would be closer to a more Elizabethan sounding " When ended the month,
>he/she left. "
Yes that's right. Now where's the problem?
Do you know any other languages, besides english? Then maybe you do know that you cannot
translate literally between languages. You must translate the idea.
I'm not sure if I got your question right. [Please ask me again!]
Quvar
Beginners' Grammarian
ghojwI'pu'wI' vISaH