tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 09 07:58:27 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: Thinking and compounding
This may be a little off the subject of Klingon for a second, but
that isn't correct French. The appropriate translation of "I think,
therefore I am" is "Je pense, donc je suis".
Remy Savant
On Sun, 8 Sep 1996, Denny Shortliffe wrote:
> [snip]
>
> >If I remember my French correctly, the original expresion "I
> >think, therefore I am" was REALLY "Je crois, <I've forgotten the word for
> >"therefor"> j'exist." ("I think, therefore I exist").
>
> My understanding is that the original expression was in Latin, "Cogito
> ergo sum". This uses the Latin for "to be" which carries with it the
> meaning of "to exist" but is not limited to that. So the conundrum
> continues. (Don't we English-speakers love our alliteration!)
>
> >This goes back, I think to several people's comments on "translations on
> >translations", and why you should always go back to the original, before you
> >try to translate something. This is also another example of how English
> >uses "to be" WAY too much, and you really should re-cat it, before you
> >attempt to translate it into tlhIngan Hol.
>
> I'm not aware that English uses "to be" too much, not any more than French
> or Portuguese, two other languages with which I happen to be familiar.
> Perhaps tlhIngan Hol doesn't use it enough (perhaps MO planned it that way
> just to give us something to do in our evenings!).
>
>
>
> Qapla'
>
> qrlIH veStaySortlhIH Sogh Lieutenant K'rlikh Vestai-Shor-Klikh
> tlhIngan wo' Duj qIj leng rawI' Commanding Officer, IKV Black Odyssey
>
> a.k.a.
>
> --
> Denny Shortliffe
>