tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 21 20:21:59 2006
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Re: A probably missed pun...
The other thing about curses is that they are very cultural. Klingons may
not see the sex act as profane, while insulting their honor or foreheads
might be more serious. Literal translations of the curses might not seem
very profane to an english speaker, and vice versa. Okrand may simply not
have wanted to spend the time figuring out what cultural stigma Klingons
might have to warrant profanities. Knowing how they're used is enough for
speech, and it allows you to connect them to something meaningful to you in
your own mind.
Elizabedth
>From: "QeS 'utlh" <[email protected]>
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: A probably missed pun...
>Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 08:29:22 +1000
>
>ghItlhpu' Shane MiQogh, ja':
> >Despite baQa' isn't used as a curse against some one (i don't think) it
> >might be a pun of "baka" which is japanese for "fool".
>
>I don't know any Japanese, but it sounds like it might be plausible.
>
> >They have a small list of cusswords here, but not the meaning of
> >each word... odd...
>
>Not really. Some linguists are more prudish than others. A linguist I know
>who has written extensively on Georgian will usually translate vulgar
>Georgian words and phrases directly into English using similarly vulgar
>counterparts, in order to preserve both the negative connotations
>associated
>with those words, and the grammatical structure where necessary (English
>has
>only one non-colloquial transitive verb that means "to have sex with", for
>instance, and in an ergative language like Georgian it's important to know
>whether a verb takes a direct object or not). However, not all linguists
>will do this: there is another linguist of Georgian who translated these
>vulgar terms into Latin instead of his usual French, in order to preserve a
>semblance of what he saw as decency. Okrand probably didn't feel
>comfortable
>translating the Klingon words into their true English equivalents in a book
>that's intended for general consumption.
>
>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
>
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