tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 24 08:42:38 2014

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Question on Klingon Negation

lojmitti7wi7nuv ([email protected]) 

If you want us to tell you the best answer to a question in Klingon, it really helps for you to give us the question in Klingon. There is no literal, word for word Klingon translation for "Did you hear that?" given that and the way you compromise your question when translating it would make it much easier to form the best answer in the negative.

Hmm. I've never seen this noun suffix on this particular noun, but perhaps: {vay'vetlh DaQoy'a'?}

Most questions that quickly come to mind similarly end in {DaQoy'a'?} and I'd simply answer: "{ghobe'.}

It's simple. It's not ambiguous. It's short. It answers the question. There really isn't a reason to go further.

Languages that do use double negatives typically do so for emphasis, as in the southern dialect English, "I didn't hear NOTHIN'!", which probably derives from African languages that use the double negative for emphasis. If that's what you want, you'd answer: {ghobe' jay'!} Note that if no emphasis is implied, the same people who would say, "I didn't hear NOTHIN'!" with emphasis would say, "*I* didn't hear anythang," without emphasis.

We've never been shown evidence how a double negative would work in Klingon. Would it be an emphatic, or would it cancel out the negatives to be a positive statement? We don't know. People who don't like double negatives in English will argue the logical conclusion that two negatives cancel each other out. People who speak a dialect that uses it as an emphatic can just as easily argue their preference, but neither argument has authority, since the one authority on the language hasn't explicitly explained how it would work in Klingon. So, we avoid it.

If you were not asked for a yes/no answer and were simply asked to report, and you wanted to note that you had not heard anything, you might say any of the following.

vay' vIQoybe'.
pagh vIQoy.
naDev tamchu'taH Hoch.
naDev vay' Qoylu'be'taH.
naDev pagh Qoylu'taH.
Dalchu'taH yaHwIj.
Dalchu'taH yInwIj. choSuvchoH DaneH'a'?
Dalchu'taH yaHwIj. bIDalchu'taH. Dalchu'taH Hoch! pay' muHoHjaj vay' jay'!
[Actually, because of a rule you probably haven't learned yet concerning blessings and wishes using the suffix {-jaj}, that last one should probably be {pay' vay' muHoHjaj jay'!}], though that's probably not an ancient saying, so I'm not sure which way is The One Right Way to say it. Either way would likely be understood.]

Guards hate quiet assignments.

On Jun 24, 2014, at 10:51 AM, Chelsea Knauf <[email protected]> wrote:

> Newbie here with a question about negation in Klingon.  Does Klingon double negate?
> 
> For example, would "I don't hear anything" (in response to something like "Did you hear that?") be properly translated as {pagh vIQoybe'}, {vay' vIQoybe'}, or something else like simply {vIQoybe'}?
> 
> I'm sure there must be an example sentence out there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.
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