tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 04 21:42:54 1994
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Klingon Love
- From: [email protected] (Mark E. Shoulson)
- Subject: Klingon Love
- Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 09:39:23 -0400
- In-Reply-To: Carl Sadler's message of Mon, 4 Apr 1994 19:01:57 +0100 <[email protected]>
>From: Carl Sadler <[email protected]>
>Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 19:01:57 +0100
>Well, several of you mentioned using {bangwI' SoH} for "I love you".
>Well, just to explain, my logic in using {bang SoH} was that {bang} is
>defined as love or one who is loved, so I was using the 'one who is loved'
>sense of it. It never occurred to me to use {bangwI' SoH} because that,
>to me, sounds like 'you are my love'. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to
>translate too literally from English to Klingon, and honestly, 'you are
>my love' is just as valid to say in English as is 'I love you'--it's just
>that you don't hear it like that usually. :)
You mustn't think that you have to translate words exactly from language to
language. Each language has its own idioms and its own way of expressing
concepts, depending on the words and structures it has at its disposable.
How would you say "Don't worry" in Klingon? I'd say in most situations
"rejmorgh yIDaQo'". That's not what the English has, but remember: there's
no such thing as a perfect word-for-word translations because even words
don't mean the same between languages.
>If I were to use {bangwI'} in saying "I love you" I would probably be
>more inclined to say something like {bangwI' Daghaj} since you'd have to
>be going to a rather 'loose' [in terms of literal wording] translation
>anyway. Would that be a better way to say it, anyway?
Ick, no. Mostly, there's my reading of the dictionary, which means to me
that "bang" is "love" *in the sense of* "one who is loved", i.e. "beloved"
or something, but does *not* mean "love" as an abstract noun, as an
emotion. There are those who read it differently. Beyond that, "You have
my love" strikes my ear as very much an English idiom; speakers of other
languages, even ones with words for "love" as an abstract noun, would
furrow their brows and wonder how someone could reach into your soul and
rip your love out of it, to keep. And anyway, if you're considering love
as a thing and not a person, it'd be "?bangwIj". Stick with "bangwI' SoH"
or "qamuSHa'" or some such.
~mark