tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 09 11:18:03 1997

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

[KLBC]: Re: Hockey Player insult

Khatal wrote:

> I didn't get any comments from anyone on my translation of the 
> insult. Everyone started commenting on my lurking. Alright, I'm 
> here already!

Awright!!  You can lurk and lurk but we can't convert you into one of 
us untill you submit to our tortures, you see? :)

Creative insults are an important Klingon tradition, so let's see 
what's going on with this one.

> yaD woHwl' parHa' Quj SoH! (You skate like a toe picker!)

This sentence seems to say "The game you likes toe lifters."  

The word "pick" in the "toe pick" on a figure skate means "pierce or 
dig up by striking."  The word {woH} means "pick up" as in lift.  A 
{yaD woHwI'} is an implement or a person that lifts toes, not a spike 
on the front of a boot. The word {parHa'} is the Klingon verb "like" 
as in enjoy, have good feelings about.  It doesn't have anything to 
do with the English "be like" meaning resemble.  Words that have 
multiple meanings in one language don't carry the same multiple 
meanings in another.  I know you meant {Quj} to have the meaning 
"play (a game)" and that was a good choice lacking a word for skate, 
but when you put it right next to the other verb, {parHa'}, it made 
it impossible to interpret as a verb, because of the way Klingon 
grammar works.  Always remember that the word order in Klingon is 
different in English and you must think of each word's relationship 
to a verb. 

I'd render your insult as: 
{bIQujtaHvIS chuch DaSpu'Hommey lo'wI' Darur} 

bI- (you-no object) + Quj (play) + -taH (continuous) + -vIS (while) 
chuch  (ice)
DaSpu'  (boot-spike) + -Hom (mini) + -mey (plural)
lo' (use) + -wI' (one who does, is)
Da- (you-it) rur (resemble)

"While you play you resemble a user of ice toe-spikelets"
i.e. "You play like a toe-picker."

I also offer {chuchDaq yIH Darur}
"On the ice, you're like a tribble."

> And by the way, > 
> So' parHa' jIH! (I like to lurk!)

But by delurking you have won the change to learn about both verb 
prefixes and sentences-as-object.  You've probably seen me --and 
previous BGs, if you've been here a while-- talk a blue streak about 
sentence-as-object and verb prefixes, but it probably never seemed 
relevant, because it wasn't your writing.  Well now it is ...

First prefixes.  On page 33 of TKD ... [Qov waits while you all turn 
to the page and look at it] ... there is a prefix chart showing 
subjects across the top and objects down the left column, with the 
appropriate prefixes at their intersections in the chart.  In the top 
left is the prefix for (I - no object): {jI-}. In the middle of the 
top row is the prefix for (I- 3rd person singular object 
(she/he/it)): {vI-}.  Every time you use a verb, yes every single 
time, you must consider what is the subject and object of the 
verb, to know which verb prefix to put on it.  This does become 
automatic over time, but you have to do it deliberately at first.  
When you say {So'} you are talking about yourself hiding, but you're 
not hiding something, you're just hiding, so the no object prefix is 
appropriate.  {jISo'}. When you say {parHa'} you are liking 
*something*, some "it," so you say {vIparHa'}.

Now sentence as object:
In English the infinitive of one verb (e.g. "to lurk") can be the 
object of another verb.  Klingon doesn't have infinitives and the 
only verb that can directly take another as its object is {neH}, 
"want."

jISo' vIneH jIH - I want to lurk.

For any other verb, the sentence-as-object construction is required.  
Simply write the first sentence, the one that is to be the object of 
the second verb, and then write the second sentence with the word 
{'e'} in the object position.

jISo' 'e' vIparHa' jIH  - "I like to lurk"

Note that because the {vI-} and {jI-} make it quite clear that the 
subject is "I" you could write this simply as {jISo' 'e' vIparHa'}.  
The jIH adds emphasis, as in "*I* like to hide."

> Well I tried anyway!

What do mean, "anyway"? Trying is all anyone is doing.  Were there 
real Klingons on this list they would mark up everything I write and 
I would have to keep writing more to try to pass their scrutiny.

Now take what you've learned and try:

I know I lurk.
Qov knows I lurk.
She annoys me.
She wants me to contribute.
She sees me.
I will contribute.
I will learn Klingon.

If any of this doesn't make sense just ask: I'm not even pretending 
that I can write a perfectly understandable answer at all, let alone 
first time every time.

- Qov

Back to archive top level