tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 14 17:19:23 1997

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



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

Re: KLBC: betleH (grammar practice but also need some information)



David Trimboli wrote:
> 
> jatlh wIvqu':
> 
> > pIj *Hov leng*-Daq betleH vIlegh, 'ej vIbejbej.
> 
> Your translation said, "And [I] always watched carefully."  If you say 
> {vIbejbej}, it means, "I definitely watched carefully," "I watched, that's not
> at all in question."  If you mean to say that you checked out every piece of 
> evidence, and took into account every angle, you can say {vIbejchu'}.

     Okay, so it's not really a translation.  I composed in Klingon,
then again in English.  Perhaps I should have tried to be more literal
in my translation for the sake of the newcomer.  I don't think {-chu'}
is quite right though, because I was watching casually, not studying
it.  But I *did* watch it, and that's what I meant to say, and what I
did say in the Klingon.

> 
> > loS qammey
> > Danlaw' betleH.
> 
> Klingon feet?  Human feet?  Hobbit feet?  Whose feet?
> 
> A "foot" is a measurement of twelve inches.  We don't know the equivalent 
> Klingon unit of measurement, or anything close to it (all we know of is 
> {qelI'qammey}).  Write out "feet."
> 
> loS "foot"-mey Danlaw' betleH.

     This might be debatable - it *does* occupy the space of four
feet.  (I have big feet. :)  At any rate, I think it was clear, since
the context was a question about size.  I commonly use body
measurements in English as well, so you can put this down to personal
idio(t)syncrasy.

> > 'uchmeH Daq chenmoHDI' loDnI'lI',
> 
> "Husband" is {loDnal}.  "Brother" is {loDnI'}.

HIvqa' veqlargh.

> 
> > betleH chenmoHta'DI', HetaQvo' paq SuqnIS.
> 
> *HetaQ* paq je'laHbe'.  paqmeyDaj ngev *HetaQ* 'e' mev ghaH net raD.

HIja', jabbI'ID vIngeHta'DI' ngoDvam vItu'.  Do'Ha'.  reH Doghqu'nISlaw'
chuttejmey.

wIvqu', law'wI'pu'vaD Holtej jIH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Thaddaeus Vick, Linguist to the Masses |       [email protected]       |
|                                        |                           |
| I could be wrong.  After all, there's  |                           |
|      a first time for everything.      | http://www.crl.com/~dvick |
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Back to archive top level