tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 07 20:11:34 1997

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translating vs original work



For those beginners who are drawn to translate the writings of 
others rather than writing their own stuff because, "I can't 
think of anything to write," realize that in order to speak 
Klingon well, you must thoroughly understand the thought behind 
the sentence you are attempting to write. Klingon is not encoded 
English. It is a language.

All languages contain ambiguities, and each langauge has its 
strenths and weaknesses. Between languages, the strong and weak 
areas differ. A grammatical construction in one language may 
cover the territory of several different grammatical 
constructions in a different language.

So, you must begin with the thought, pick up the appropriate 
Klingon tool to express each piece of the thought and then 
smoothe out the grammar of the whole sentence until it is a 
polished work deserving of expression.

If you translate someone else's writing, you must begin by 
translating the symbols of the other person's speech into 
thought before you can begin to express that thought in Klingon. 
If a phrase is ambiguous, you need to decide arbitrarily and 
without consulting the writer which branch of meaning to take 
and how best to express that in Klingon. You are more tempted to 
use an equivalent grammatical construction as the original 
writer, even if that does not fit the Klingon meaning well.

When the writing is your own, you know the meaning of all of 
your ambiguous phrases. You know the thought and will feel more 
free to change grammatical constructions to suit your meaning. 
It is not simply easier. The exercise is more meaningful. It 
builds your skills better than translating someone else's work.

charghwI'





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