tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat May 20 12:55:10 1995

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Re: KLBC: Aesop - The Wolf and the Lamb




Sat, 20 May 1995, ghItlh Dep'ong:

> >> vItlhapmeH meqqoq vItu'chugh meghwI' 'e' Qub Ha'DIbaH qu'
> >mumISmoH mu'tlheghvam.  bong mu' Danop'a'?

> I was trying for "Wolf thinks 'if I can find an excuse, I will take it 
> for my lunch".

I like your use of {meqqoq} for "excuse".

Perhaps you could say:
meqqoq tu'laHchugh meghDajvaD tlhap 'e' Qub Ha'DIbaH qu'.
(The fierce animal thought that if he could find an excuse, he would take it 
for his lunch.)

Notice that since I am using {Qub}, I'm using indirect speech.
Verbs of speaking, like {jatlh} (speak), {ja'} (tell), {tlhob} (ask), use 
direct speech, that is, you state the words literally.  (Sec. 6.2.5.)  
I don't know if {Qub} would qualify as a verb of speech, so I'm not using 
it as one here.

If you used {jalth} instead of {Qub}, the sentence would look like this:

meqqoq vItu'laHchugh meghwI'vaD vItlhap jatlh Ha'DIbaH qu'.
("If I can find an excuse I will take it for my lunch," said the fierce 
animal.)

Note that in the sentence using {Qub}, everything is in the third-person, 
but in the sentence using {jatlh}, what the wolf says is written in the 
first-person since he is being quoted literally.  Also, when {jalth} is 
used, the pronoun {'e'} is dropped.

I noticed that you used {meghwI'} for "my lunch",  Your use of {-wI'} 
instead of {-wIj} seems to be appropriate since he intends to eat a talking 
animal.  I'm not used to thinking of "lunch" as being capable of using 
language, but this story may be an unusual exception.  (Isn't language fun?)

> >majQa'!  QaQqu' lutlIj wa'DIch 'ej bIpo' 'e' 'ang.
> >lutvam vIparHa' 'ej tugh lut latlh DaghItlhlaH 'e' vItul.

> Lets see... "Very Good! Your first story is very good and you reveal that 
> you are skilled. I like this story and I hope that soon you can write 
> more stories." Is that about right? (I've only got the original 
> dictionary, so had to guess latlh=more.)

Actually it's "Your first story is very good and IT reveals that you are 
skilled."  If I were say "YOU reveal that you are skilled", I would use 
{bIpo' 'e' Da'ang}.

{latlh} means "another one, an additional one".  You know this word, you 
used it in your story.  Actually, since I would like to see more stories, 
it would be better to say:  lutmey latlhmey DaghItlhlaH 'e' vItul.
{lutmey lalthmey} (additional ones of the stories, i.e. more stories)

> I've got an E-version of all of Aesop's fables, so it's not that hard to 
> translate them. I'm going to try The Fox and the Mask next, then The Fox 
> and the Grapes.

maj.

> --
> Dep'ong aka Daniel Boese

yoDtargh



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