tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 26 16:18:40 1996
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Re: KLBC:Commants on my sentances.
According to Alan Anderson:
>
> Chris Lipscombe writes:
> >I translated these con the train the other day.
> >Please can you commant on them.
>
> I'd be delighted to comment on your sentences, Chris!
>
> >It is an honor to have Klingon blood.
> >tlhIngan 'Iw ghajneS
>
> I read this as: "He is honored to have Klingon blood."
No. That would be more like {batlh tlhIngan 'Iw ghaj} which
more literally means, "He honorably has Klingon blood." The
{-neS} suffix is always an honorable reference to the person to
whom the sentence is spoken with no particular inference to
honor for either the subject or object of the sentence. The
original sentence means something more like, "He has Klingon
blood, your honor."
> The suffix {-neS} takes a bit of work to use correctly, but I think
> your usage here is perfectly fine.
It does take work, but you don't have it right yet.
> However, any time you try to
> translate "it is [something] to..." or "it is [something] that..."
> you're in difficult territory. English often turns sentences around
> like this, putting the pronoun "it" at the front and stating what "it"
> is later, using an entire sentence as the main sentence's subject.
> While Klingon has a way to use a sentence as an *object* (TKD 6.2.5,
> the words {'e'} and {net}), we aren't told how to use a sentence as
> a *subject*.
>
> There is a tool that can help a lot here, though. The verb suffix
> {-lu'} (TKD 4.2.5) says that the subject is indefinite; it's usually
> translated using the impersonal "one". If we add it to your sentence,
> we get:
> {tlhIngan 'Iw ghajlu'neS}
> "One is honored to have Klingon blood."
No. This means, "One has Klingon blood, your honor," or
"Klingon blood is possessed, your honor," which is not making
any reference to idioms concerning superstitions or spiritual
presences. What you want is more like:
vay' quvmoH tlhIngan 'Iw.
Klingon blood causes one to be honored.
Still, I find Klingon blood to be more of an obligation to
honor than a source of it. Honor is an indirect effect of
Klingon blood. Having Klingon blood, I am obliged to be
honorable, and through that action, I am honored.
tlhIngan 'IwwIjmo' batlh jItob'eghnIStaH.
...
> >I uses <jI'nIy> for train as in PK somebody rides the jI'nIy and the
> >>backgorund noise sounds like a train.
>
> I've never heard _Power Klingon_, but in _Conversational Klingon_ the
> word used is {lupwI'}, translated as "jitney." The American Heritage
> Dictionary says a jitney is "a small motor vehicle, such as a bus or van,
> that transports passengers on a route for a small fare." Maybe a train
> could be called a {lupwI'tlhegh}?
Dajqu'.
> -- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj
charghwI'
--
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