tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 10 15:03:12 1993
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Babel.
- From: (Mark E. Shoulson) [email protected]
- Subject: Babel.
- Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 16:13:26 -0400
Heya all. I had a few minutes to play with recently and decided to try my
hand at this. It was easier than I'd feared. I had to take some liberties
with words to translate, and leave out part of a sentence, but it's pretty
much right. Read it carefully, some of the grammar may be hairy. I hope
you can guess what it is... It has some importance to supporters of
constructed languages.
To John Cowan, if you're here, in answer to the question you'll likely ask:
because Klingon is more forgiving, or at least I'm more fogiving of myself
when I write it, so it was *much* easier.
Sorry for the opacity, I'm feeling extremely cryptic today.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
wa' Hol mu'mey puS je neH ghaj qo' Hoch.
"Kedem"vo' ghoSDI' "Shinar" wo'Daq/puHDaq ngech lutu'pu' 'ej pa' yIn.
'ej ja'chuq <<naghmey DIchenmoHjaj 'ej qulDaq DItujmoHjaj>>.
[...]
'ej ja'chuq <<veng qach'a'(?) je DIchenmoHjaj, 'ej chal SIch nachDaj.
qo' HochDaq maghomHa'be'meH (maghomHa'meHbe'??) noyghach wISuqjaj.>>
'ej veng'e' qach'a''e' je chenmoHpu'bogh loDpu' leghmeH jotlh'egh joH'a'.
'ej ja' joH'a' <<wa' qorDu''a'(?) wa' Hol je neH ghaj chaH Hoch,
'ej Dochvam luta'lI'! DaH pagh lunabbogh temlu'.
jIjotlh'egh 'ej latlh Hol yajbe'meH wa' Holchaj vImISmoH.>>
'ej pa'vo' qo' HochDaq ghomHa'moH joH'a'; 'ej veng luchenmoH 'e' lumev.
Dochvammo' pong Daqvetlh 'oH "Babel"'e', Hol qo' Hoch mISmoHmo' joH'a',
'ej pa'vo' qo' HochDaq ghomHa'moH joH'a'.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Not sure whether {wo'} or {puH} is better in the second line. The more I
think about it, the better I like {qach'a'} in the fifth.
{maghomHa'meHbe'} is probably an excellent use of the roving nature of
{-be'} to indicate "that not" or "lest" (oops, mustn't give it away!), but
I wasn't positive about it. {qorDu'a'} was a stab at "people" in the
singular sense (i.e. "tribe", etc.)
Note on {qo' Hoch}, etc. I think this is probably the right way to say
things like "all the world", since that's really "all *of* the world" or
"the world's all", which leads us right to the noun-noun construction.
Does that mean "you all" should be {Hochraj} (or {Hochra'})? I don't know,
somehow {?tlhIH Hoch} sounds better to my ear, though I can't defend it.
Actually, this last question is a good one. Thoughts?
~mark