tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 08 12:57:21 1995
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Re: vocabulary
These are my impressions and suggestions. This post doesn't seem to
me to fall under the purview of the BG, which is why I'm going ahead
and submitting my opinions; but they are just that - my opinions. End
disclaimer. :)
Adam Walker <[email protected]> writes:
\ There are several words (concepts) which I have come across which i
\ am unsure how to express.
\
\ light as a noun
One might deduce from the noun {maSwov} "moonlight", which obviously
derives from {maS} "moon" and {wov} "to light", that "wov" is
itself usable as a noun - but that's treading on thin ice. There's
no generic way to turn a verb into a noun; {wovtaHghach} would convey
the meaning but would stand out as a marked word. The general solution
is to recast the sentence so that you can use the verb instead.
\ chest the body part
How about {ro} "trunk (of body)"?
\ lava
Not much to do here other than describe it. I don't think {HuDqul} quite
conveys the intended meaning of "volcano", but it might be closer to
"lava" ("mountainfire" or "mountain's fire"). Still something of a hindsight
word, though.
\ wood
I assume that here you mean the material. Not much help there;
Klingon in general has no words for various materials, just one or
two special substances from Trek (e.g. dilithium). There is the
word {Sor} "Tree", which might serve for some instances of "wood";
on the other hand, one might put together {SorDIr} and expect it
to be understood as "bark".
\ crush or squeeze
Will {'uy} work?
\ wide
Could you be less specific here and just use {tIn}?
\ bloody
{'IwDaq} ("in blood") perhaps?
\
\ also what do we know about tlhingan zoology/botany? What kind of
\ animals and plants do we know of that originate on the homeworld other
\ than the targh and Qogh (BTW what exactly is a Qogh). Do they have
\ bird or reptile analogs? Trees?
As stated in the intro to TKD, words for native flora and fauna are among
the notable gaps in the vocabulary, along with words for food. We don't
know what a Qogh is, exactly. They do seem to have trees; at least, there
is a word for them ({Sor}) but we don't know anything about specific species.
\ What about metalurgy? Are there tlhingan names for specific metals??
See above about wood.
\ Here are some words I think I may have translated sufficiently:
\ volcano -- HuDqul
As stated above, I don't think this quite works. Maybe if you reversed it
to {qulHuD} ("fire mountain" or "fire's mountain"), but it's still a
hindsight word - you'd have to explain it before using it.
\ blacksmith --vumbaSwI'
Combining verbs and nouns in this way is not allowed. There are
places where it has apparently been done for us by Okrand
(as in {maSwov}), but it's not a legal thing to do in general. And even
were it legal, "metal worker" does not cause "blacksmith" to leap to my mind.
Short of something verbose like {Dochmey chenmoHmeH baS lo'bogh ghot} I
can't think of a way to convey the right image.
\ Is pem Hov which appeared in the Sesame Street translation an
\ accepted general word for a sun?
I don't know if it's been used elsewhere, and verse in general takes more
liberties than prose, but it seems likely to convey the intended meaning.
-marqoS
--
Mark J. Reed
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