tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 08 14:50:38 1995
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Re: vocabulary
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: vocabulary
- Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 17:50:28 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Adam Walker" at Nov 8, 95 11:39:21 am
Your approach will lead to frustration and little else. It
seems that you seek to find the weak parts of the language.
Before you seek whole sentences you can say well in Klingon,
you list individual words you cannot say well in Klingon. This
leaves me with little to offer you in help.
According to Adam Walker:
>
> There are several words (concepts) which I have come across which i
> am unsure how to express.
>
> light as a noun
Give me context. Do you mean source of light, like "He turned
on the light," or shade of color cast by a light source, like,
"His dying face was illuminated by the red light of the
disruptor fire," or do you mean the act of igniting a
cigarette, like "She held out her cigarette and he gave her a
light," or do you mean the radiation itself, as in "Light
emitting diod"?
It may well be that Klingons have no concept of a generic noun
for "light", since in English the noun can be several different
things. Which thing do you want?
> chest the body part
I don't have my dictionary with me.
> lava
bIQ Dabogh nagh
> wood
Heghbogh Sor
> crush or squeeze
DopmeyDaq yuv
> wide
Dopmeymo' tIn
> bloody
Dochvam Hotlu'chugh wa'logh 'Iw HotnISlu'.
My point here is that working with single words is futile. It
is a waste of good energy. HoS QaQ lo'Ha' qechlIj. Instead,
state whole sentences that you lack the skill or diligence to
translate. Then, you may gain respect for the good puzzle you
present us with.
Otherwise, we fall to the child's game of "What's the word for
'broccoli'?" like an obnoxious child who chants, "Why?" Anyone
can list words that are not in TKD. Just pick up your OED and
compare it to TKD. This is not interesting.
> 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?
>
> What about metalurgy? Are there tlhingan names for specific metals??
jISaHbe'.
> Here are some words I think I may have translated sufficiently:
> volcano -- HuDqul
In all likelihood, volcano is just {HuD}. It is a mountain.
Yes, it belches fire, and you may well describe it as doing
just that, but once it is established that the mountain is
belching fire, you would probably just continue to call it a
mountain. Klingons do not necessarily need a separate word to
describe a volcano, having the word for mountain.
I am a man with a beard. Other men often lack beards. Do we use
a different word for a man with a beard than one who is shaven?
Not usually, even though there are many men with and without
beards just as there are mountains which do or do not have fire.
So far as we know, there is no Klingon word for volcano.
> blacksmith --vumbaSwI'
Okay.
> Is pem Hov which appeared in the Sesame Street translation an
> accepted general word for a sun?
Many Klingonists like this term for Sun.
> Sorry to be such a nuisance!
We are all nuisances from time to time. If you didn't ever
annoy me with a list of distinct words, I'd never prompt you to
shift your efforts towards whole sentences and perhaps you'd
never get past discrete words and the entire Klingon community
would suffer the loss of your future contributions.
Work on sentences. Words serve sentences. Alone, they are silly
things.
Mercurial.
Retronym.
Polyamory.
Micron.
Conceptualizationalismic. [Mwaahahahahahaha...]
> Qogh
charghwI'
--
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