tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 08 18:24:39 1995
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Re: vocabulary
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: vocabulary
- Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 21:24:42 -0500
Qogh writes:
>...Here are some words I think I may have translated sufficiently...
Stop right there and listen a moment. If your intent is to translate
*words* then I believe you are misguided. tlhIngan Hol is not a way
to encode English sentences. It is a language with not only a distinct
vocabulary but also a distinct grammar. When I want to say something
in Klingon, I do not first say it in English then translate the words.
I translate the *meaning* of the words. I wish to communicate *ideas*.
Until I became familiar with the vocabulary, this was difficult. I
kept running into dead ends in how I could say what I wanted. After
a month or so of dedicated practice, I found that I had internalized
enough of the words and phrase structures that I could think about
what I wanted to say and fairly quickly figure out how to say it in
Klingon grammar. It's an iterative process. Until you know what the
words are, you don't know what you can say, and until you know what
you can say, you can't figure out how to say it. Once you know how
to say things, you can return to learning what more you can say. The
only way to learn is to *do* -- so practice.
>...(BTW what exactly is a Qogh)...
According to The Klingon Dictionary, a {Qogh} is a type of animal. :-)
That's the best we can do until we see one on TV or in the movies, or
until Paramount publishes a Klingon zoopedia.
>Is pem Hov which appeared in the Sesame Street translation an
>accepted general word for a sun?
If it makes sense, I accept it. Can you figure out that "daytime's star"
refers to "sun" without someone telling you? I think most people could.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj