tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 11 08:27:26 1994

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Re: My first communication...



Johnny Wayne Junior writes:
\ 
\ Actually what I was trying to say was more like: "Since correct sentences 
\ gives you(all) pleasure (as par the previous sentence), then these sentences
\ will give you pleasure."  I would have preferred to have said "You will 
\ have fun with these sentences."

How about "you will enjoy these sentences"?   {mu'tlheghmeyvam botIv} 

\ Also, the other day I was trying to figure how to say thanks or to 
\ express gratitude.  No word for thank-you, no word for appreciate, no word
\ for owe (as in "I owe you one"), no word for debt (for "I'm in your debt")...
\ so how about it?  Do Klingons not express gratitude?
 There is a verb {tlho'} "to thank".  So "thank you" is usually rendered as
{qatlho'} "I thank you".  This actually appeared in a
TNG episode with Picard thanking someone, although his pronunciation was more
like English "cot low".

\ And one other thing...
\ 
\ How would you say that something _should_ be done?
\ In the context of someone asking a superior "What should I do?" I suppose
\ you could say  
\ 	nuq vIta' choneH      or
\         nuq vIta'niS
\ 
\ But those kind of avoid the real meaning of should...

Depends on your definition of "should".  I think that -nIS conveys the 
concept rather well . . . anything you should do is something that you need to
do, yes?  Another possibility for your question is {nuq vIta'nIS 'e' DaHar}
"What do you believe I need to do?"  

(Minor correction:  your first example should (there's that word again) be
 {nuq vIta' DaneH} - the superior doesn't want the speaker, s/he wants *that
the speaker do something*, so the object of the wanting, the action, is
an "it", not a "me".)

\ oh.. I lied...one more thing...someone told me that there is a Klingon
\ Encyclopedia out which contains EVERY Klingon word, including a being verb.
\ This book is apparently made for writers (who would be writing Star Trek 
\ episodes and the like).  I've heard it costs about a $100USD.  Any 
\ information on this?
To the best of my knowledge, no such thing exists - Marc Okrand has said that
the references to a "forthcoming Klingon Encyclopaedia" in the mu'ghom were
a joke.   There are several words that do not appear in the dictionary,
even the new version with the addendum, but they are not collected in any
printed volume anywhere. However, THERE IS NOT, ANYWHERE, ANY VERB FOR "TO BE".
It's not just that Okrand left it out of the Dictionary - he quite deliberately
left it out of the *language*.

What they might have been thinking of is the
newer version of the Dictionary, with the addendum, which includes the verb
that was used to translate "To be or not to be" for Star Trek VI - {taH}.
However, {taH} does not mean "to be", but "to continue, go on, endure" -
and the only reason it was used instead of {yIn} "to live" was that Christopher
Plummer didn't think that {yIn} sounded very Klingon. :)

-marqoS


  
--
Mark J. Reed
Email: [email protected] - Voice: +1 404 315 6296 x158 - Fax: +1 404 315 0293
SecureWare, Inc. / 2957 Clairmont Rd Suite 200 / Atlanta GA 30329-1647



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