tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 11 10:49:02 1994
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Re: Klingon text on DSN trading card
Hu'tegh! nuq ja' [email protected] jay'?
=In the new HolQeD, the Klingon text from one of the
=DSN trading cards is given without translation.
I actually got the HolQeD, but haven't had time to scrutinise it... I seem
to remember these texts have been Okrand-generated, and are thus canon?
=loS... qIb HeHDaq, 'u' SepmeyDaq
= Sovbe'lu'bogh lenglu'meH He
= ghoSlu'bogh retlhDaq 'oHtaH.
Kudos to Okrand for giving a canonical example of relative clause in indirect
object position, which we've only been assuming till now. An interesting
postscript to my article on Klingon relativisation, which I hope HolQeD
publishes soon (and whether it does or not, I'm seriously considering
expanding it for submission to a 'real' linguistics journal.)
Somewhat lesser kudos to Okrand for making an N-N compound where one N is the
head of a relative clause. As I've found in my relativisation stats, we
Klingonists know how ambiguous such constructions can be, and as a result
avoid them like the plague...
Normally, Okrandian Klingon is just barked commands. Interesting to see
that this particular prose example is actually (arguably) probably as
syntactically complex (if not more) as my typical Shakespearean Klingon.
I guess this *does* mean Okrand would have a lot to learn from Will
Martin --- as indeed we all have. Now all we've got to do is convince
Will to produce some text longer than a sentence ;) .
=HaDlu'meH, QuSlu'meH, SuDlu'meH
= lojmit Da logh Hop Hut tengchaH.
=Deep Space Nine acts like a door (passage?) for one to study,
=conspire and take a chance (risk). Or, is the -meH suffix
=used here to form what in English would be a noun: risk, conspiracy,
=and study (exploration??) Maybe the whole sentence should just
=read, "DSN is a doorway to exploration, conspiracy and risk"?
Well, probably both. Re-Kudos to Okrand for exploiting what most of us would
consider a serious alternative to nominalisation.
=vaj loghDaq lenglaHtaH Humanpu'
=So to space Humans can travel.
Ah, so logh *is* Outer Space. I wonder if it is still also space as in
dimension.
Nick.