tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 14 09:18:12 1996
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Re: KLBC:fractions & directions
>Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 04:33:35 -0800
>From: "Rob. [nuqHm] Newcombe" <[email protected]>
>nuqneH,
>What's wrong with wej wavta' wa' (or even wejwavta'wa') for 1/3 ?
Well, for starters it's a sentence and not a noun. One has divided three
(isn't that backwards?). Moreover, bear in mind that bare nouns in
Klingon, as in English, usually mean "one of them", "two of them", etc. in
context. If You were talking about... I dunno, countries, and said "wej
wavta' wa'", I'd think you meant that one of the countries had managed to
divide three others (perhaps from each other, politically, maybe breaking
up an alliance.) Especially since you use "-ta'" which implies that it was
done on purpose. A third of an apple is not necessarily divided on purpose.
>N.E.S.W. ie compas directions:
>Where a planet has a magnetic field could we use...
>NORTH peQ chemlurgh
>SOUTH peq chemlurghDoH
>EAST nIHpeQ chemlurgh
>WEST poSpeq chemlurgh
You're compounding a verb (DoH) onto a noun; there's no evidence you can do
that in general. Besides, last I looked magnetism flowed as much south as
it did north; the business about one being forward and one backward is
completely arbitrary; why should Klingons have picked the same way?
Your east and west have another problem. In Klingon Noun-noun
constructions, the *first* noun modifies the *second*, not the other way
'round. And that's true, so far as we can tell, in compounds as well. So
"nIHpeQ chemlurgh" is something like "right-hand magnetism's
field-direction" As opposed to magnetism that's somehow left-handed.
Probably put the the nIH and poS at the end, to indicate the magnetism's
directions right and left sides.
>if there is no magnetic field - borrowed from Larry Niven...
>SPINWARD DIngDaq
>ANTI-SPINWARD DIngDaqDoH
>using poS & nIH for left and right of spinward ?
Wouldn't trust the magnetic field anyway; the usual definition of
north/south in astronomy depends on rotation (most planets rotate): the
rotation is clockwise around the south pole.
Note the same problem with "DoH", and that you're now putting a noun-suffix
(-Daq) onto a verb (DIng). Sorry, this just doesn't work out for me at
all. There may be ways you can make grammatical constructions that get the
meaning across, but I doubt they'll be very neat.
>QUESTION:
>In the above NORTH & SOUTH feel ok but would you split the magnetic field. ie...
>peQ nIHchemlurgh
Um... magnetism's right-hand-side's field's direction.
>or even...
>peQ chemlurghnIH ?
magnetism's field's direction's right-hand-side... closer.
~mark