tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 18 17:12:57 1995
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[What, me worry?] YES!
- From: "David Wood" <[email protected]>
- Subject: [What, me worry?] YES!
- Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 20:13:05 -0500
jIjegh! jIjegh! ghuy'cha'! mevbe'bej tlhingan Hol qab! ...?
(Hmm... How would I say "If I worked for Paramount, I'd never hear the end
of it?")
Okay, so what have I learned?
rejmorgh SaHlaHbe'bej He surely can't care about the worrywort.
jISaHbe' I don't care.
rejmorgh vISaHlaHbe' I can't care about the worrywort.
SaHlaHbe'beh rejmorghpu' The worryworts surely can't care.
pagh vIHajbej I surely dread nothing.
vay' vIHajlaH'a' Is there anyone (anything?) I can dread?
SaHlaHbe' Hoch rejmorghpu' je * The worryworts and all can't care.
The last looks like the best construction for the "even" clause I've seen
so far. The Hoch - je format works for me... So here's today's foot-in-mouth
opportunity. Let's see if any of these sound feasible (much less make sense):
'uQvam SoplaHbe' Hoch targhwIj je.
Suvqang Hoch tera'nganpu' je!
Dapwij mughlaHbe' Hoch [Okrand] je.
BTW, since it has a bearing on this whole [lam be'] thing... check
Adjectives, section 4.4, p. 49, and how you can use a verb to modify a noun.
That section probably stuck in the author's mind sideways, and what he meant to
write was [be' lam] for dirty woman.
I finally realized it after I wrote the sentence at the top, which
I intended to mean "Bad Klingon Never Ceases." The [qab] is used as an adjective
in exactly the way [lam] should have been.
Mind you, he's fallen victim to a homograph: he's using "dirty"
metaphorically and translating it literally. Being in need of a bath is a minor
epithet at best. [web] (disgraced), [toj] (deceiving), [magh] (betraying), or
[mIgh] (evil) would all have been better words IMHO. I also wanted to suggest
"Denebian Slime She-Devil," but didn't know quite how to phrase it.
Then again, it's not like I read that particular novel, so I don't know the
context. Was her honor dirtied by misdeeds, or was she sexually
indiscriminating?
And now, another question: would being "ready and willing" to do something
use BOTH the suffixes [-rup] and [-qang]? Or is that more of an English idiom
best translated somehow using [-bej]?
Disgusting Thought for the Day: Klingon ...enchefferized!
======================================================================
If I had a swordfish, I'd share it with you./ David Wood has opinions,
But this is a halibut and IT'S ALL MINE! / but very few people care.
==========================================/ To them, I say "BITE ME!"
And ask me about THE ONE-ARMED PAPER HANGERS and PORT ROYAL! May31-Jn2