tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Nov 16 21:24:25 1995
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Re: Big translation.
On Thu, 16 Nov 1995, Matt Treyvaud, P.A. wrote:
> DaH pe'Ij!
>
> As a grammatical project, I decided to attempt to translate Brujah's
> Commandments from the Book of Nod. While most of you will probably have no
> idea who Brujah is, what the Book of Nod is, and so forth, that shouldn't make
> too much of a difference to the translating process.
I happen to have a copy too.
> *** bIruSa ra'mey: ***
Have you ever read any source which indicates the proper pronunciation of
"Brujah"? I have heard it pronounced in different ways. Here in Texas,
most kindred, er... folks, pronounce the 'j' as in Spanish.
If you need a noun for "commandments" or "commands", you could use
{ra'ta'ghachmey} (that which has been commanded). Other alternatives:
{ra'ta' Brujah} (Brujah has commanded)
{jura'ta' Brujah} (Brujah has commanded us)
{Dochmey'e' ra'ta'bogh Brujah} (Things which Brujah has commanded)
> qup tIlobHa' 'ej tlhabchoH yabmeyraj 'e' yIchaw'.
{yab} as a body part, uses the plural suffix {-Du'}. Although {yabmey}
(scattered minds) may be appropriate in referring to Malkavians. {{;-)
> peqel'egh 'ej vaj 'anglu' vIt 'e' yIlegh.
There is no syntactic connection between {'anglu'} & {vIt} here.
Perhaps you can say: {vIt 'anglu'bogh yIlegh}.
> lIyajqu'choHmoH vIt 'ej lIrIQHa'choHmoH vIt.
maj.
> reH tISov'egh 'ej reH tIvoq'egh.
{-'egh} always uses a no-object prefix, so you would say:
reH peSov'egh 'ej reH pevoq'egh.
> puqpu'wI' tlhIH, 'ach tuDa neH bonIDchugh, Supuj 'ej vaj SaQaw 'e' SuraDlu'.
This would be a sentence-as-object construction:
'ach tuDa 'e' bonIDchugh neH, Supuj... (If you merely try to behave as me,
you are weak...)
You don't use {Su-} with {-lu'}, you use verb prefixes which indicate a
third-person object. Also, if the second verb of a sentence-as-object
construction has an indefinite subject, you drop the {-lu'} and
use {net} instead of {'e'}:
SaQaw' net raD. (Something compels that I destroy you; I am
compelled to destroy you.)
> * I dropped the 'Truth, as truth is known', because I couldn't find a
> non-clunky way to say it. Any suggestions?
Maybe {vItHey} (the apparent truth, the truth that you are fairly sure about)
> * I decided to drop the 'illumination' thing altogether, since tlhIngans
> don't seem to go in much for idioms, and turned it into 'understand',
> with an emphatic <-qu'> to make it obvious that this was not some
> trifling little matter that you will understand, but an extremely
> important one.
Good idea.
> puqpu'wI' tlhIH, 'ach tuDa neH 'e' (You are my children, but if you
> bonIDchugh, Supuj 'ej vaj SaQaw 'e' merely attempt to emulate me,
> SuraDlu'. you will be weak and so I will
> be forced to destroy you.)
>
> * This is the sentence that gave me the most trouble. I dropped the 'pottery',
> again because tlhIngan isn't really big on idiom (except when insulting
> someone :) I had no idea how to say 'prefer', in the sense of 'I prefer
> X to Y'. All I could say is 'I prefer X', and it would just sound
> pathetic (and un-tlhIngan) to say 'I would prefer that you didn't emulate
> me'. Basically any suggestions on how to improve this would be appreciated.
I'm glad you didn't try to talk about pottery. I think you're on the
right track.
You can say: X qaq law' Y qaq puS (X is more preferable than Y) or
you can say: tuDabe' 'e' vImaS. (I prefer that you don't emulate me.)
But perhaps it would be more Klingon to simply say:
HIDaQo'! (Don't emulate me!)
> taghqIj
ghot lucharghlu'ta'bogh 'Iw lungaSjaj 'aDDu'lIj,
yoDtargh