tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 15 02:14:04 1997

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

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

Re: KLBC: naDev bIrbejqu'!

David Trimboli wrote:
> January 12, 1997 7:30 PM EST, jatlh Voqrel:
> > DaHjaj jIvempu' 'ej muD ja' vI'Ijpu'.
> 
> [...] the entry in TKD for {'Ij} says "listen," not "listen to."

So it does.  But methinks a verb meaning `listen' which doesn't allow
one to name the thing listened to would be nearly useless.  In English
that thing is introduced by _to_, a preposition with no actual meaning.
There are no such things in Klingon; its Type 5 suffixes are all loaded
with meaning, and none of them would be appropriate for this purpose.
I have the impression that Klingon takes just about any excuse to make
a verb transitive, although there probably are exceptions.

> While this is not certain, it's likely that you cannot say {vI'Ij}
> for "I listen to it."  It would mean "I listen it."

`I listen it' (literally) is in fact what oodles of Terran languages say,
and if English doesn't, it's English that is weird, not the rest of them.

To be sure, it may be that Klingon is also weird in this way.  If so,
my entry for `I listen to you' is {qaQoymeH jI'Ij}.

> Rather, say {vIQoy}, "I hear it."  To Okrand's mind, in TKW (page 31),
> it seems that {'Ij} means the act of receiving audible information in
> the ear, and {Qoy} refers to the understanding of this information.

I think the difference is the same as suggested by the glosses: {Qoy}
`hear' is the act of perceiving audible signals and {'Ij} `listen' is
the effort directed at such perception, a variety of {qIm} `attend'.

> Hat bIr ja' muDtej.
> The weatherman reported a cold temperature.

Not a low one?

> > bIng pagh vaghmaH!
> 
> We don't have any way to describe temperature in this way, I think.
> Certainly {bIng} doesn't refer to a scalar measurement!  It's referring
> to a location. (Unless, one might argue, Klingons refer to the "area
> below" 0 degrees Celcius on a thermometer, which I really doubt.)

That depends on the kind of thermometer one is using.  If the top of
the mercury column is below the 0C mark (in the literal spatial sense),
one would naturally use {bIng} to describe the situation.

> Here's a cute way to do this:
> 
> cha'vatlh cha'maH wej "Kelvin" 'oH Hat'e'.
> The temperature is 223 Kelvin.
> 
> The *really* nice thing about this is that you don't need a word
> for "degrees"; measurements in Kelvins are stated without them.

Another cute thing is that you don't need to say `-50', negative
numbers being another thing that we don't know how to express.

--'Iwvan

-- 
"mIw'e' lo'lu'ta'bogh batlh tlhIHvaD vIlIH [...]
 poH vIghajchugh neH jIH, yab boghajchugh neH tlhIH"
                                  (Lewis Carroll, "_Snark_ wamlu'")
Ivan A Derzhanski  <[email protected], [email protected]>
Dept for Math Lx,  Inst for Maths & CompSci,  Bulg Acad of Sciences
Home:  cplx Iztok  bl 91,  1113 Sofia,  Bulgaria

Back to archive top level