tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 24 19:58:21 1997
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Re: vegh and the nentay'
Un subscribe me from this list.
Steven Boozer wrote:
> : According to [Voragh]:
> : >One might (now) very well order the initiate to get moving by
> saying,
> {tIvegh!}.
> :
> : That just sounds very strange to me. I'd expect the people
> : yelling this to either form an arch, as two did at qep'a', or
> : I'd expect the speakers to be giants with doorways in their
> : bellies, taunting the listener to climb through these doors.
>
> True, but don't forget that as the initiate passes through, the
> warriors
> lean over him to poke him with their painstiks forming a temporary
> arch or
> tunnel of sorts. One could well use {vegh} *figuratively* in this
> case.
>
> : >Okrand has described this very ceremony in Skybox card S9,
> : >finessing the lack of a word for "row (of people)" - apparently
> {tlhegh}
> : >"line, rope" wasn't quite right:
> : > poSDaq nIHDaq je QamtaHvIS SuvwI'pu'. chaH jojDaq yItnIS lopwI'
> : > "The initiate must pass through a gauntlet of warriors."
> :
> : Does the card really have a period there? That first mu'tlheghqoq
> has no
> main verb.
> :
> : charghwI'
>
> Yep. Here's the complete text:
>
> T.N.G. EPISODES SERIES (2nd SEASON): CARD S9
> qaSDI' nenghep Age of Ascension
>
> qaSDI' nenghep, qa' patlh chu' chav tlhIngan SuvwI'. poSDaq nIHDaq je
>
> QamtaHvIS SuvwI'pu'.
> chaH jojDaq yItnIS lopwI'. luchovmeH 'oy'naQmey lo'.
>
> "The Age of Ascension marks a new level of spiritual attainment by a
> Klingon
> warrior. The initiate must pass through a gauntlet of warriors who
> test him
> with painstiks."
>
> Okrand's rendering (possibly of a source text provided by Skybox) is
> only a
> loose translation, not the simplistic word-for-word stuff of TKD and
> other
> primers, and is therefore much better as a translation (though not for
>
> learning the language). I've come to consider the Skybox cards good
> examples
> of advanced Klingon--or, rather, normal literary Klingon--compared to
> the
> elementary Klingon in TKD and the intermediate level stuff in the two
> audiotapes, with the proverbs of TKW falling somewhere after the tapes
> in
> complexity.
>
> Perhaps this is why Lawrence calls this material "Everyday Klingon"
> when he
> publishes it in _HolQeD_ as it's not the simplified, artificial
> material
> normally provided to learners in classroom situations but "real life"
> Klingon. I imagine that's what we'll see in the new book. Anyone who
> has
> ever tried to learn a language soon realizes that native
> speakers--talking
> to and writing for other native speakers--rarely sound like their
> grammar
> books. Believe me, I've gone through this rough transition twice: in
> Russia
> and in Israel. But that's when you really begin learning the language!
>
> Voragh