tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 27 21:33:11 1994
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Re: Translation help!
- From: Mark Reed <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Translation help!
- Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 10:31:58 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Matt Gomes" at Jan 28, 94 07:11:57 am
\>batlh choja', Matthew Whiteacre quv:
\
\ Now, I know that "batlh" is "honor (n)" and "choja'" is "you tell me" and
\"quv" is "be honored (v)". But how do you put this all together?!? Using
\my OVS knowledge it comes out:
\
\You tell me the honor, be honored Matthew Whiteacre...
\
\ Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?
In addition to being the noun "honor", "batlh" serves as an adverbial meaning
"with honor", "honorably". Canon example from STIII - Kruge to Valkris, just
before he blows her out of the sky:
batlh Daqawlu'taH
"You will be remembered with honor"
batlh - with honor
Daqawlu'taH - someone remembers you continuously
So "batlh choja'" could be "You honorably tell me".
quv means "be honored"; as an adjectival verb, it may be used as a
noun-modifying adjective would be in English, in which case it is placed
after the noun. So "Matthew Whiteacre quv" becomes "the honorable
Matthew Whiteacre".
This leaves us with
You honrably tell me, honorable Matthew Whiteacre:
Which seems to be laying it on a bit thick. :)
Not that anyone asked, but if I felt the need to use an honorific in this
sentence, I would probably go with -neS, as in
choja'neS, <Matthew Whiteacre>
which conveys the idea much more compactly and less redundantly.
(I'd personally also leave off the appositive and use "choja'neS"
or "muja'neS <Matthew Whiteacre>, depending on whether it was a reply to
just him or to the whole list, but anyway . . .)
-marqoS