tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 24 01:32:53 1996

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translating and gaps in vocabulary

  [email protected] wrote (Subject: batlh DaqawIu'taH):-
  (0) His `I' (letter eye) should be `l' (letter ell): shows again that
permission to write `i' for `I' would help legibility!

> I am part of a group of Mac developers who are working to get a `Klingon
> Language Kit' put together - this would effectively make a Mac OS based
> system capable of using two languages: the one you originally installed, and
> Klingon. ... However, you won't find us claiming we could translate Hamlet,
> or the Bible. ...

  (1) I feel that people translating bulk text into Klingon should report all
vocabulary gaps to a central list (perhaps with suggestions for new words or
grammatical forms to fill these gaps) for Marc Okrand's attention (or for the
attention of someone deputized by him to maintain his language), instead of
merely makeshifting. I am very sorry to spout yet more heresy, but it must be
admitted that the existing tlhIngan Hol vocabulary is fine for writing Star
Trek type space stories in, but for other purposes is badly gappy. E.g. there
is no word so far for "dive" or "swim", and to unambiguously say "scuba diver"
recently I had to say {bIQ bIng tlhuHwI' lo'wI'} = "water under breathe-er
use-er", 6 syllables; for practical use a shorter word for "underwater
breathing set" and/or "scuba diver" is needed.
  (2) We need separate suffixes for instrument and agent. E.g. if {X} is a
verb = "he scuba dives", {XwI'} could mean (a) a scuba diver and also (b) his
breathing set.
  (3) We need a short word for "chemical element". That would let us name all
the chemical elements: {Y} = "element", {Y loSmaH wej} = element 43 =
technetium; {'ej DaqDaq 'e' Y-HutmaH-loS <be_composed_of>bogh ghopDap
tlhilwi''e' loghSut Y-chorgh ngaSwi'mey lutmeyHey vIQoypu'} = "And in that
place I heard apparent stories of an asteroid miner whose spacesuit oxygen
cylinders were made of plutonium.".
  (4) Excuse the hyphens: but how else to distinguish e.g. {Duj-loS pu'mey} =
"Ship #4's phasers" from {Duj loS-pu'mey} = "4 phasers belonging to the ship"?

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