tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 10 17:39:50 1996

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Re: KLBC: Questions on word translation

Andrea writes:
>I was questioning myself which is the correct term for these words

You're probably asking the wrong questions.  One can not simply translate
words; one must translate entire ideas.

>Surname (Family name)           qorDu'
>Can I use this term that means family as House or Clan name?

We've recently learned the word {tuq}, meaning "House" in this sense.

>Nationality              rewbe' (citizen)
>I can't find an appropriate term in the Klingon Dictionary for nationality,
>the most similar term that I found is citizen, but how can I say citizenship
>in Klingon?

You don't say "his citizenship is".  You say "he is a citizen of".
A citizen of Mexico would be {*Mexico* rewbe'}.

>Date of Birth           qoS (Birthday)
>But it has the same meaning, or litteraly I must use jaj for day, but I
>didn't find any equivalent term for birth (there is one?)

{bogh} is a verb meaning "be born".  If you want to identify a date of
birth, just say it!  "He was born in the first month of the year 1971"
can be translated as {DIS wa'SaD Hutvatlh SochmaH wa' jar wa' bogh}.

>Place of Birth          Daq-???
>Not having found a term for birth I can't come up with a word to use
>together with Daq (place) Any ideas?

If you're describing a birthplace, give its name!  {*Indiana*Daq jIbogh}.

>Date of issue          jajtagh
>Can I use tagh meaning "begining of a process" and day at the place of date?

{tagh} is a verb meaning "begin (a process)".  If you want to say something
begins at a certain time, just say it.

>Date of expiry            jajta'
>And ta' in place of expiry? Have any other suggestions?

{mev} "stop, cease"

>Residence       juH
>I think that home can be used to mean residence.

I agree.

>sex
>i didn't found any Klingon word in the Klingon Dictionary indicating the sex
>of person or animals. Is there any?

How can you have missed {loD} "male" and {be'} "female"?

>Height
>I can' find the correct way to say Height, the only two words that are verbs
>that in my humble opinion suit better are  tIn (to be big) and jen (to be
>tall) but how do you make them nouns? This point puzzle me.

{jen} is actually given as "be high", exactly what you were looking for.
If you absolutely *must* refer to something's "height", you can use the
suffix {-ghach} to give a meaning a bit like "continuity of being high":
{jentaHghach}.  But we don't really know the right way to say *how* high
something is.

>color of eyes
>Ok, mIn means eye, but I didn't find any word for color. Without starting a
>big discussion on what color means for Klingons already discussed in this
>list, it's possible that Klingons have all the same eye color? There is no
>word (at least I didn't found it) for color in Klingon. Hints?

We don't know a noun meaning "color", but we have verbs for specific colors
and shades.

[In the TNG episode "Rightful Heir", Gowron asks the Kahless-clone to tell
him the color of the eyes of the fool who died challenging the storm.]

It sounds an awful lot like you're trying to translate a driver's license
or something similar.  DON'T DO IT LIKE THIS! :-)  Don't label a bunch of
blanks and fill them in.  Don't attempt to translate "hair:  black"; say
instead {qIj jIb} "the hair is black".

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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