tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jan 21 09:44:59 1995
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Re: law'/puS
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: law'/puS
- Date: Sat, 21 Jan 95 12:44:56 EST
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Marc Ruehlaender" at Jan 20, 95 8:54 am
According to Marc Ruehlaender:
>
...
> > > That's exactly my point: I DONT want to say "speak TO the
> > > passing ship". My dictionary lists the above use of "speak"
> > > as a nautical expression for "exchanging information by
> > > waving flags etc."
> >
> > Hmmm. This is an English useage I've never experienced. I would
> > not expect most Klingon speakers to understand it.
> >
> I kind of wanted to provocate a strict "no!". I got
> the expression, that sometimes you (people on the list,
> not you, charghwI', personally) use Klingon words in a
> way English uses the, given translation, whereas German
> wouldn't. For example: Give me the betleH. German
> formally distinguishes between DO and IO, so I'd expect
> the verb prefix to indicate DO, which isn't always done
> as you (charghwI') pointed out in a lecture you posted
> a couple of weeks ago. So "I would not expect most
> Klingon speakers" of German descent (which may be not
> too many, granted) "to understand it" without some
> puzzlement at least. See my point?
Ahhh, but to be honest, many English speakers have exactly the
same problem with Klingon. English also generally
differentiates between direct object (DO) and indirect object
(IO), thought sometimes it is by word order, as you point out
with "Give me the betleH." It took months for me to accept
qajatlh as a valid word.
> Marc 'Doychlangan'
charghwI'
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