tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Dec 12 16:11:09 1997
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RE: sound on my web page
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: sound on my web page
- Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 17:20:03 -0700
majQa', DIoraH.
This post contains a really great example of the Klingon suffix <-lu'>:
QIch De'wIj QoymeH RealAudio lo'nISlu'.
The Klingon is clear, but the English is awkward. In conversational
speech, I would expect "... you must use RealAudio ..." from most
people, but this kind of second person usage (especially when it's not
imperative) is does not work in more formal speech. Other possibilities
are "... one must use RealAudio ...", which relies on the indefinite
pseudopronoun "one", and "... RealAudio must be used ...", which uses
passive voice. Passive voice is certainly correct, and this is the best
literal translation, but it's still a bit awkward. Passive voice is
exactly that: passive. The best English rendering I can think of is "...
this page require RealAudio ...", and even this is not quite as
expressive or simple as the Klingon.
No language is perfect, and few even try to be. This wonderful Klingon
suffix points out (at least to me) an area where Klingon is more
expressive than English.
pagh
p.s. If you don't believe an indefinite subject would be useful in
English, think back to high school or college English and writing a
"persuasive" paper, and how many times you had to rewrite that one
particular sentence to get rid of the "you".
-----Original Message-----
From: TPO [SMTP:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 1997 10:10 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: sound on my web page
Qapla!
jIQap
De'wI'ghomDaq QIch De'wIj vItI'chu'
DaH QIch De'wIj Qoylu'
QIch De'wIj QoymeH RealAudio lo'nISlu'
jaj paghDIch De' vIchel
yISuch yItIv
www2.rpa.net/~cheesbro
DloraH