tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 12 13:28:13 1996
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Re: a proverb
- From: "Lee Lewis" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: a proverb
- Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 16:26:36 -0500
> From: Mark E. Shoulson <[email protected]>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: a proverb
> Date: Tuesday, November 12, 1996 3:41 PM
> >My attempt at translation
> >**
> >Once, while I was dreaming, I met Kahless.
> >He caused a batlith to form and proceded to instruct me in its
use.
> >Dream of strength
> >I always remember the cockroach-dream
> >**
> >I felt comfortable with the first 2 lines. The 3d line was a bit
> >hazy; and the last line made no sense to me at all. Could the
> >reference to "cockroach" be analagous to "grasshopper" (ie, in the
> >Kung Fu series?)
> rare. Don't forget your suffixes! They're important to know too.
K'oops!
> Oh, and if it were the noun, "najvetlh" would be "dream-cockroach,"
not
> "cockroach-dream" (the logic of the formation in Klingon happens to
match
> the English of the same order. A "jolpa'" is a kind of "pa'", not
a kind
> of "jol.")
I get confused in this regard at times. This is my fifth language; I
tend to think in what I call "symbol-flow" rather than words
structured by grammar. This has always worked for other languages,
but tlhIngan Hol seems to defy me. I beleive the difference is, I
have never conversed with anyone who spoke the language fluently.
Every language seems to have a "spirit" (if I may use the term),
which cannot be (at least not easily) conveyed in writing. That's
why everytime I hear Klingon spoken on the screen, I latch on to it
with every linguistic sense I have. But I feel like a sponge trying
to absord liquid thru a pane of glass! Learning ability falls into a
spectrum ranging on one end at "reductive" to the opposite end,
"holistic." I fall near the extreme holistic end (often to my
dismay), while most people tend to be reductive learners. I won't
get into the details of what all that means, but it is making my
learning of tlhIngan Hol much more difficult than I am accustomed to.
(Besides which it IS difficult... intentionally!).
Thanks for your input/response!
Qapla' batlh je!
K'Pach
<[email protected]>