tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 05 13:14:20 1997

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Re: KLBC: New Words - magic, magician

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>Date: Sat, 1 Mar 1997 15:26:20 -0800
>From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
>
>
>|>> for magic and magician (sorcerer, etc.).	
>|>>      chambe'cham = magic (no-technology technology)
>|>>      chambe'chamwI' = magician (no-technology technician)	
>|
>|Even if these worked grammatically (which they don't) I don't like them. 
>|They are ambiguous.  In the KSRP version of "Hamlet" the word "witch" is
>|translated as *qa' SeHwI'*, "Controller of Spirits".  Extending this idea,
>
>Which is equally ambiguous as it also describes what an "exorcist" does.

Many of these are horribly hindsight words.  Be careful of "translating"
unless you think of the context.  Leaving grammatical discussions aside, if
I said to you, "I used non-technological technology to move the rocks up
the mountain," what would that likely mean to you?  It would have you
scratching your head, it would.  And thinking... "Um... a simple device
like a pulley?  No technology at all but just brawn?  No, it says
technology.  Uuuh..."  I really don't think "magic" would be one of the
earlier things you thought of, unless it was in a context where that had
already been introduced.  "Controller of spirits" works just fine for
talking about an exorcist or medium or anything involving such
concepts... so long as you're not hung up on a *precise* translation from
English (there ain't no such thing anyway).

~mark

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