tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Apr 25 10:39:40 2004

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Re: Star Trek: Customizable Card Game (-lu' + -laH + noun-noun)

...Paul ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004, De'vID jonwI' wrote:
> For starters, I tried <wIvlu'bogh> "which one chooses/selects".
> But this is "customiz-ed", not "customiz-able".  I want to
> stick a <-laH> on to <wIv>, but since <-lu'> is there, I
> change this to <nav let wIvlaHbogh vay'> "cards which one
> can choose".  Now the whole expression is <Hov leng: nav let
> wIvlaHbogh vay' Quj>.  But this can also be read to mean
> "cards which someone's game can choose".  Okay, so the "right"
> choice among the ambiguous choices is obvious, but can anyone
> see a better way to express this?

Well, there're a couple of ways I could see doing it, off the cuff.
First, if you're talking to a single person, you could simply use the
you/it verb prefix /Da-/ on the bogh clause.  I would probably select
/choH/ over /wIv/, so something like /Hov leng: Quj DachoHlaHbogh/, "Star
Trek, the game you can change"...

Of course, since it's really a proper English name at this point, you may
find that it really isn't necessary to translate it in the first place.
Especially if you then start to acronym in "STCCG" (you wouldn't acronym
it "Hl:QD", would you?  :)

> As a related question, how would one say "Kahless the
> Unforgettable's sword" (I mean besides <betleH> or <batlh
> 'etlh>)?  <qeylIS'e' lIjlaHbe'bogh vay' yan> can also be
> interpreted as "Kahless whom someone's sword cannot forget" --
> which might in some bizarre way be a valid Klingon
> interpretation. :)
>
> Does this bother anyone else, or am I mulling over a non-problem?

Recast it.  Instead of /lIjlaHbe'bogh vay'/, move to /qawlu'taHbogh/,
focus on remembering rather than forgetting.

Or maybe instead of using the noun-noun construction, use a /-bogh/
construction, to say something like "the sword which was wielded by
Kahless whom one cannot forget."

...Paul

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