tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 08 12:40:26 1994
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Re: Talk like a Klingon!
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Talk like a Klingon!
- Date: Tue, 09 Aug 94 00:36:25 EDT
ghItlh DavID-baron:
>I was not),he asked me "qatlh naDev SoHbe'?"
>I must point out that as far as I can tell this phrase is
>completely gramatical but it struck me as an English Idiom because
>it makes use of the verb "to be".
toH wejpuH Hu'tegh yIntagh jay'
Oh please. That's ridiculous. Sorry I'm responding to such an old post, but I
feel quite strongly about this.
DavidBarron has in the past been quite good about sticking to the
Klingonesque-ness that many people disregard, out of laziness and ignorance.
But now this is going a bit far. To say that a phrase as simple as {qatlh
naDev SoHbe'} is unKlingon.. well, that's silly. Just because, yes, sentences
that use pronominal verbs are more cumbersome than their English equivalents,
that's not to say that Klingon omit them at all costs.
In Klingon, to equivocate to nouns, one uses the construct:
noun - pronoun(as verb)/copula - topic noun
This is the same as in Japanese, albeit they simply put the topic noun first.
But Japanese do NOT invent silly little conventions to get around using the
copula. To a Klingon {naDev SoHbe'} is perfectly acceptably Klingonesque, and
possibly a trite less formal, I might wager. Omission of the copula in favor
of verbs like {Da} or {rur} is *sometimes* the better way to go.
If you ask me, the verb {ghaj} is used far far too frequently. I especially
cringe at Klingon phrases expressing persons' possession of time and family
members. {poH yap vIghaj} is such a gut-wrenchingly nauseating Anglicism,
it's not even funny.
And while I'm at it, that one non-canon mu'qaD created by DrujIv, I believe,
that went something like {DuSaQmoH be' qan lutmey} bugs me. For one thing,
Klingons do not cry. Remember from ST6; no tear ducts. ({SaQ} prob'ly means
"cry out") Secondly, the role of women in Klingon society is that of teachers
in the way of methods of battle. They stay home and teach the children the
ways of the warrior (all this came from the STE; read it- it's cool). Thus,
an old *Klingon* women would most likely NOT be a symbol of frailty, but an
aged and experience teacher of warriors. If I was told that the stories of
MrMiyagi make *me* cry/yell, I'm not sure how I would take that, but it would
doubtedly occur to me as an insult.
Ahh. Much better. jIjatlh rIntaH. SoQvetlh Qoylu'pu'mo' jIyonqu'
Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos
ghItlh'o'Hom DrujIvvaD: For the most part, DrujIv, the rest of your mu'qaD
were a-ok in my book. 101% majQa'! qatIchbe' 'e' vIHech!