tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 06 07:33:07 1996

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Computer Vocabulary again



Klingonists! Before I left for Queensland, I proposed a list of computer terms;
here's my response to subsequent discussion.

Abbreviations: PB - Perry Brulotte; AA - Alan Anderson (ghunchu'wI'); DT - D. 
Trimboli (SuStel); MR - Mark Reed (marqoS)

>save                     pol

Seems to have been uncontroversial

>page                     nav 'ay' 
PB: nav

The distinction I wanted to make was between a physical sheet of paper and a 
page-ful within a document. nav 'ay' is probably a confusing way of rendering 
this anyway, so I'll go with nav.

>clipboard                *jolpa'
AA: Daq ru', De' ru'

Maybe even De'Daq ru'? I'll suggest the transporter metaphor only as an 
alternative to the KLT folk.

>eject                    ghupHa'
AA: ("wierd")

Oh, I don't know about that. Would lel be better?

>disk (floppy)            qawHaqHom; qawHaq teqlu'bogh
PB: teqbogh qawHaqHom

>disk (hard)              qawHaq; qawHaq ru'be'
PB: qawHaq

AA: I don't like these much.  I think of disks as physical objects, and memory
banks as logical structures (a "filesystem").  I'd call a storage device
{qawHaq ngaSwI'}, and the actual directories and files on the device would
be {qawHaq}.  The term "disk" is a physical description of the object, with
no bearing on its function; a colloquial translation might be {ghobeQ}.
Some hard disks are removable, and the data on a floppy certainly ought to
be (relatively) permanent!  If you're going to key off "floppy" and "hard",
you might as well use {tun} and {let}.  For a CD-ROM: {choHlu'be'bogh}.

I agree that qawHaq should be a logical rather than physical structure. I don't 
think qawHaq ngaSwI' is a usable rendering of 'disk'. Would De'gho (De'gho tun/ 
De'gho let, or De'ghoHom/De'gho'a') be acceptable?

>RAM                      (De'wI') yab
AA: The CPU does the "thinking", not the RAM.  What about {qawHaq ru'}?
MR: How about {qawHaq ru'}?  Fits nicely with the {qawHaq ru'be'}
for HD.

qawHaq ru' it is. An alternative is 'working memory', which would be something 
like mIw qawHaq or Qu' qawHaq.

>icon                     ('oSbogh) Degh
AA: Degh

OK.

>click (v)                *rIH
AA: Hot
MR: yuv

rIH would have to be abandoned here in favour of its transporter-metaphor use 
for 'copy' anyway. I wouldn't mind chu' here...

>type (v)                 ghItlh
>text                     mu' De'
AA: mu', mu'mey

>graphics                 HaSta De'

>document                 ghItlh
AA: De' ngaSwI'

>file                     De' 'ay'; *De' mo'
PB: De'mey
AA: De'
MR: De'ghom

>folder                   De' buv; *De' bIghHa'
PB: De'ngaSwI'
AA: De'ghom
MR: De'ghom ngaSwI'

Lots of contradiction here. I interpret 'document' to refer to a file used by 
intelligent programs, with some human content; given the clashes with 'file', 
I'd really rather keep it as ghItlh. For file, how about De'tlhoQ? (ghom is 
very vague for how individual pieces of information constitute a file, and De' 
is probably confusing, being more akin to ngoD.) This would leave De'(tlhoQ) 
ghom or De'(tlhoQ) ngaSwI' for 'folder'.

I forget who thought the prison metaphor was cute, but thank you!

>edit                     choH
>cut                      teq
AA: nge'
MR: Qol

I'll keep the transporter terms as an alternative; thanks marqoS! nge' is in 
fact the right term.

>copy                     latlh chenmoH; chelqa'beH; chelqa'meH qaw
AA: qaw; nge'law'; woH
MR: rIH

qaw is right for this context, as ghunchu'wI' pointed out.

>paste                    chel
AA: chagh; roQ
MR: jol

chagh is probably clearer than chel.

>clear                    (De') Qaw'
AA: chImmoH

Yes.

>font                     pIqaD
PB: pIqaD buv
AA: pIqaD mut, pIqaD buv
DT: I've often wondered: is {pIqaD} a word which means any old Klingon writing
system, or is it a proper noun referring to THE Klingon writing system?
MR: I don't like this.  I think it's pretty clear that {pIqaD}
is a proper noun, or at least a specific one, and not just a word
meaning "writing system".  How about {Deghghom}?

But Degh is already going to end up more like 'icon'. Since, furthermore, we 
can exploit some notion of the Klingon OS being in Klingon pIqaD anyway, and 
lots of pIqaD fonts becoming available (as Lawrence and I are conspiring 
towards), pIqaD mut is a way to go.

>bold                     ror
>italic                   SIH
AA: taH

Yes, I know he wasn't being serious... :)

>underline                bIng tlhegh
>outline                  Dech tlhegh
AA: Hur tlhegh (for parallelism with bIng tlhegh)

Cool!

>shadow                   QIb
>condensed                qev
>extended                 qevHa'
>version                  choH
AA: Ugh.  There has to be something better... there *must* be... maybe {ta}?
DT: What about {mI'}?  Or, since you're talking about an operating system, how
about {pat mI'}?

I have no major problem with choH; I use it for 'revision' on my Web page 
(which will shortly reappear on a new machine.) Incidentally, I think the 
actual context was version of file, not of OS, so choH (used flexibly) is still 
attractive to me.

>button                   leQ
>scroll                   HaSta tlhe'moH
AA: vIHmoH

OK

>desktop                  yaH
AA: wIy

Yes, much better.

>window                   HaSta
AA: {HaSta} is "*visual* display" as opposed to {wIy} "*tactical* display".
Maybe {jIHHom} would work better.

I'm even tempted towards wIyHom, but Ok, jIHHom it is. I guess this means HaSta 
is limited to picture and animation windows?

>monitor; display         jIH
>untitled                 per Hutlh
AA: perbe'lu'; pongbe'lu'

Sure, them too.

-- 
NON ME TENENT VINCVLA NON ME TENET CLAVIS    STETIT PVELLA RVFA TVNICA SIQVIS
       Nick Nicholas      http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~nsn   Linguistics
QVAERO MEI SIMILES ET ADIVNGOR PRAVIS        EAM TETIGIT TVNICA CREPVIT EIA
     [email protected]           University of Melbourne
ARCHIPOETAE CONFESSIO                        E CARMINIBVS BVRANIS



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