tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 23 17:24:58 2003

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Klingon Radio

Spencer Daniel ([email protected])



Hey gang.  My housemates and I have a weekly show on our local college radio 
station, on which I do a Klingon phrase of the week.  Since this week is 
International Week here at JMU, we're doing an International show, and I 
decided for a phrase that might likely be heard by the Klingon diplomats at 
the UN.  I have, however, run into a problem.
I want to say "Only weaklings negotiate using diplomacy.  Men negotiate 
using swords."
But the problem here is that I'm not sure how to modify the verb "to 
negotiate" <Sutlh> with what, in English, would be "with ____" or "using 
____".  This is what I got right now:

<ghar Sutlh toDSaHpu' neH.  'etlhmey Sutlh toDpu'.>

But this seems like it might just make out "diplomacy" and "swords" to be 
the direct objects of "negotiate".  Any suggestions?

Also, a note on my use of <toDSaH>....using official Klingon profanity is 
funnier on air than making up some -wI construction (<pujwI'> would have 
been my guess), so I tried to guess which one might mean something closest 
to what I intended.  Since <toD> can mean "to care about" and <SaH> means 
"save or rescue", I figured that the combinatoin of the two might mean 
something like "someone who cares about being rescued" (the implication 
being that they need it), which might be loosely translated as "weakling."  
IIRC, Okrand actually talks about <toDSaH> on Power Klingon, but I don't 
have that with me, so I'm just gonna go with my shoddy etymological 
detective work for now.

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