tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 24 05:01:38 1996
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Re: Anyone: HELP!
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: Anyone: HELP!
- Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 07:04:06 -0500
Orville J Canter <[email protected]> writes:
>> What is a fang? It's a particularly toothy tooth. How about {Ho''a'}?
>
>Your advice on translating to Klingon is very insightful, but I'm sorry,
>man - "Fek'lhr's toothy tooth" just doesn't sound that scary.
The augmentive noun suffix {-'a'} is often translated as "great", but it
is not really an adjective. {Duy} is "agent, emissary", and {Duy'a'} is
"ambassador". {qul} is "fire"; {qul'a'} could be translated "blaze" or
"conflagration". If {Ho'} is "tooth", {Ho''a'} could easily refer to a
"long pointed tooth". (There is no implication of poison, however; if you
think of a "fang" as belonging to a poisonous snake, you would have to come
up with another way of saying it.) Of course, it might also mean "tusk",
which is a "long pointed tooth" that extends outside the mouth.
If you're going to focus on word-for-word translations, consider that
"fang of the guardian of Gre'thor" is kind of lame anyway. I think
the original "Fek'lhr's fang" is effective only in English, where the
alliteration gives it some oomph.
-- ghunchu'wI'