tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 20 09:53:42 1994
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Exhaustion and Perversity
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Exhaustion and Perversity
- Date: Sun, 20 Feb 94 22:51:55 EST
I was up in New York yesterday, giving a talk at CreationCon. Sadly, they
scheduled me right after George Takei, so that when George left the room to
go sign autographs, he took two thirds of the crowd with him. Still, those
that remained got a bit over thirty minutes of KLI anecdotes, propaganda,
pronunciation practice (interactive and fun!), and the chance to see me hold
up a skull (borrowed from the biology department at my college) and give an
impromptu translation of "Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio." All in
all, not a bad time.
Speaking to crowds of a thousand or more is draining though, and coming back
on the train I dozed off a bit. I'd been thumbing through my copy of TKD,
rereading the section on relative clauses, and no doubt that's what inspired
my first ever dream in Klingon. It's sick, twisted, and I'll give you just
the first part of it. If nothing else, it should really give those of you
developing sentence parsers some fun.
With apologies to "Drummer Hoff" and "The House That Jack Built"
I see the captain who's commanding this ship.
Dujvam ra'taH HoD vIlegh.
I see the commander who's obeying the orders of the captain who's
commanding this ship.
Dujvam ra'taH HoD ra'mey lobtaH la' vIlegh.
I see the navigator who's setting the course of the commander who's
obeying the orders of the captain who's commanding this ship.
Dujvam ra'taH HoD ra'mey lobtaH la' He chertaH chIjwI' vIlegh.
I see the helmsman who's flying the direction of the navigator who's
setting the course of the commander who's obeying the oders of the captain
who's commanding this ship.
Dujvam ra'taH HoD ra'mey lobtaH la' He chertaH chIjwI' lurgh puvtaH
DeghwI' vIlegh.
I see the lieutenant who's... well, you get the idea.
So? How far should we attempt to take something like this? And how much
sense did any of it make without the translation? (Assuming for the moment
that my Klingon was correct?)
Lawrence
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:: Dr Lawrence M Schoen, Director ::
:: The Klingon Language Institute ::
:: POB 634, Flourtown, PA 19031 USA ::
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