tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 19 15:30:25 1995
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Re: KLBC
On Fri, 19 May 1995 [email protected] wrote:
> I have a friend on America Online who is a romance novelist. She is working
> on a storyline for two klingon characters in which she wishes them, in
> tlhIngan Hol, to express love for one another, ie. The typical "I love you"
> sequence we as humans have come to expect.
>
> I have been trying to do this for her myself but have hit a problem. Love is
> only a noun in tlhIngan Hol. There is no active verb such as in english.
> Hence, I have tried to place in grammatically as "I feel love for you." The
> approximation I have reached is:
>
> Bang qaHotvaD.
>
> or "Love / Feel / intended for" with the qa- prefix to the verb with I as
> subject and you as object.
You can say {bang qaHot} (I touch you, beloved.) But, you can't put
{-vaD} on {qaHot} because you can't put a noun suffix on a verb.
Your basic question is a frequently asked one.
I think a better way to express love in Klingon is to say {bangwI'
SoH} (You are my beloved).
Another way is to say it {qamuSHa'} ("I love you", or literally, I dis-hate
you).
But you may be right in that Klingons may not neccessarily express
themselves in this way.
The PK tape has an interesting section on Klingon mating rituals. It
indicates that Klingons have little time for seduction or romance and
don't engage in small-talk and pick-up lines and have therefore adopted
ritual customs for hasty mating in battle.
When a Klingon female wishes to express a desire to mate, she slinks
around like a Hellenian minx and makes a sound like a cross between
a growl and a purr: HHHHghghghgh.
If a Klingon male wishes to initiate mating or respond affirmatively to
the females advances, he stands with his hands on his waist and makes a
low, breathy growl: rrrrrrrrr.
I can't really approximate the correct sounds very well, you'll have to
buy the tape to hear what they sound like.
PK also has handy phrases and tips on how to brush off unwanted suitors.
yoDtargh