tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 25 08:35:36 1997
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Fwd: Re: be'pu' loDpu' je'
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Fwd: Re: be'pu' loDpu' je'
- Date: Thu, 25 Dec 1997 11:35:14 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
- Priority: NORMAL
On Wed, 24 Dec 1997 12:40:54 -0800 (PST) L M Stapp
<[email protected]> wrote:
> > toH, laDmeH ngeDqu' ghItlhvam. juH HolwIj muqaw. :-))
> ----
> SoHvaD ngeD 'e' mumermoHbe'. *Portugal*ngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISov.
> *Brasil*Daq yIn HochHom juppu'wI'. rut Holmey 'e' majatlh.
Okay, I'll admit I can't quite tell who wrote the first sentence
and who wrote the second. I'm always happy to see Lisa writing.
Meanwhile, whoever wrote the response has a little bit more work
to do and as BG, even if not really asked, I feel somewhat
obligated to respond..
Let's look at <SoHvaD ngeD 'e' mumermoHbe'.> If we don't think
about it too much, it appears to say, "It does not surprise me
that it is easy for you." That's a perfectly valid English
sentence. Unfortunately, that is not quite what the Klingon
accomplishes saying.
Let's just look at {'e' mumermoHbe'}. The vague "it" as subject
brings stress to some, but laying that aside, we have two
objects here. {mer} means "surprise", not "be surprised", so if
we assume the first person object implied with the prefix is the
indirect object, what it really means is: "It does not cause me
to surprise that."
{SoHvaD ngeD} is fine. {*Portugal*ngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISov.}
is fine. I have a small suggestion for {*Brasil*Daq yIn HochHom
juppu'wI'.} {Dab} is a better verb here than {yIn}.
{rut Holmey 'e' majatlh} has a couple small problems. It needs to
lose the {'e'}, since there is no previous sentence to which it
should refer. Also, since you are saying "We speak languages" and
not "We said, 'languages'", you want to use the prefix that
includes third person object. {rut Holmey DIjatlh.}
I do hope no one is offended by these corrections on a non-KLBC
post. It's just that beginners will read this and I feel like I
need to make it clear what is correct, when I can determine it
(in my imperfect way).
charghwI', taghwI' pabpo' ru'
Temporary Beginner's Grammarian, December 20-30