tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Mar 11 15:48:03 2006

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: toH, tachDaq yIt loD...

QeS 'utlh ([email protected]) 

jIghItlhpu', jIja':
>tachDaq yIt chab. ja' chom <<naDev Soj DIjabQo'>>.

jang Quvar, ja':
>lutlIj vItIvpu'.

'e' mubelmoH!

>'ach loQ jImIS:
>Soj jab'a' jabwI' pagh loD jab'a' jabwI'?
>Doch jablu'bogh yIngu'.

Qo'. {{:P

That's the point of the joke: as in the English, it's intended to rely on 
that ambiguity, as most "man-walks-into-a-bar" jokes do. (One of my 
particular favourites is: A font walks into a bar, and the bartender says 
"We don't serve your type in here.") In English, the joke runs like this:

"A sandwich walks into a bar. The bartender says 'We don't serve food in 
here'."

The joke is in the ambiguity: does the bartender mean that the bar doesn't 
sell food, or that the bar refuses to sell anything *to* food? In 
retrospect, the joke may not work so well in Klingon, since every canon 
instance of {jab} has the food as its direct object:

{bortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay'} (TKW p.133)
"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

{yIntaHbogh qagh jablu'DI' reH nIvqu' qagh} (TKW p.141)
"Gagh is always best when served live."

{tera'nganvaD romuluS HIq jabQo'} (CK)
"They won't serve Romulan ale to humans."

And so on.

QeS 'utlh
tlhIngan Hol yejHaD pabpo' / Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute


not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
     - Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh

_________________________________________________________________
Make your dream car a reality 
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fcarpoint%2Eninemsn%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=12345&_r=emailtagline&_m=EXT

Back to archive top level