tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 07 08:52:12 1997

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Re: Analysis of new Skybox cards

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>Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 19:42:46 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Bill Willmerdinger <[email protected]>

>{beyHom bey bey'a' jachtaH latlh tlhInganpu'.}
>"The other Klingons cry out small howls, howls, great howls."
>
>This is mega-weird.  If I didn't have the English text of the card I'd
>be completely lost.  This is apparently how you express a series of
>events through time...??????  I can see how he's thinking "crescendo"
>here, but I'm not sure how I'd do this with other nouns.  There ought to
>be a {je} on that list, oughtn't there?

Probably... I dunno, I don't really see this as quite as earth-shattering
as some others seem to (though I may change my mind).  It just seems to be
a little natural asyndeton for effect.  I'm not ready to say "yep, that's a
provable, productive construction for progression..."

>{SIQwI' lu'oy'moHmeH juppu'Daj 'oy'naQmey lo' chaH.}
>"His friends cause pain to the enduree using painsticks."

"endurer," actually.  One who endures.

>{toDujDaj toblu'.}
>"Someone proves his courage."

The English is unfortunate; it's more like "someone proves his/her (someone
ELSE'S) courage."  Or "his (the celebrant's) courage is proven."  Whatever,
you knew what you meant.

>{chIch vay' 'oy'moHmeH 'oy'naQ 'ul law' tlhuD 'oH.}
>"The painstick emits many (something), for the purpose of intentionally
>causing someone pain."
>
>NOTE:  In HolQeD, it says "... 'oy'naQ 'vI law' tlhuD 'oH} - the {'vI}
>should be {'ul}!  I checked the card twice to be sure.
>
>The English says it "emits a highly-charged shock".  {tlhuD} is
>obviously "emit".  From the context, {'ul} looks to be a unit of
>electricity, probably voltage (as anyone who's played with a Van de Graf
>generator knows, it isn't the voltage that's harmful, but the amperage!)

Could also be "shock, jolt," as mentioned.

>{puvlaHbogh Duj ngabmoHlaw' So'wI'}.
>"The cloaking device apparently causes to vanish the ship which can
>fly."
>
>HolQeD has {puVlaHbogh DujngabmoHlaw' So'wI'} which is obviously a
>typo.  On the other hand, the text doesn't make all that much sense.  I
>think {puvlaHbogh} probably should be {puvlaHtaHvIS}, unless I missed
>the meaning entirely.

I don't think it's necessary.  "puvtaHvIS" might have been what I would
have guessed would be better, but "puvlaHbogh" also makes sense.  It would
tend to speak in favor of using "Duj" for generic vehicles, and thus
"puvlaHbogh Duj" restricting the idea to *flying* ships, as opposed to
trains, bicycles, etc.  Though it's not conclusive.

>{boq lucherDI' tlhIngan wo' romuluS Hov wo' je So'wI' cham Soqpu'
>tlhIngan wo' chaq tampu'.}
>"As soon as the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire set up an
>alliance, the Klingon Empire gained cloaking device technology, perhaps
>they exchanged it."
>
>The first part is clear enough.  We see {cham} by itself for the first
>time, meaning "technology" and obviously a noun.  (This still leaves
>unclear what it means in {chamwI'} "technician".)  {Soq} is unknown but
>looks to mean "gain"... unless this is another typo and the card reads
>{Suq} "acquire".  (I don't have this card yet, so I can't check.) 
>Finally, the {chaq tampu'} seems an odd fit; I don't know why it's
>atcked on to this sentence and not separate.

Punctuation is probably not part of tlhIngan Hol per se; I am not too
concerned if someone punctuates things a little non-intuitively.  We
*always* drop the period after the first sentence in a sentence-as-object
construction, don't we?

>{HovpoH Hut vagh cha' wa' vI' jav Dujvam 'aghlu'pu' 'ach Qaw'lu'pu'.}
>"Someone (?) this ship on Stardate 9521.6 but someone destroyed it."
>
>Hooookay!  "Stardate" is {HovpoH}.  {vI'} means "point"?  Hmmm. 
>{vatlhvI'} means "percent" and {vatlh} is "hundred", so perhaps {vI'}
>means "decimal".  In any case, we now know how to do decimal numbers in
>Klingon without working around the subject using percents.  Pi = {wej
>vI' wa' loS wa' vagh Hut}.  (Whoa.  If Klingons are "never approximate",
>how do they handle numbers like pi and e?)

Oh, come on.  Nothing is ever perfect, no rule is absolute.  "Yeah,
Klingons are never approximate.  So I fully believe that if someone asks
one the value of pi, the Klingon will happily answer until the end of
eternity."  Klingons are not approximate; they try to give answers as
exactly as possible... and practicable.  They'd say that pi approximately
equals 3.1416 or however many decimal places made sense in context (note
that that statement IS very exact.  Pi really IS approximately 3.1416, I
wasn't at all vague about that.  The approximation is explicitly and
exactly stated.)

Interesting about vI', though.  I really would have expected DoD.

~mark

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