tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 09 09:31:55 1998

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Re: RE: KLBC Shakespears Sisters lyrics.



While I'm glad you've noticed this {wa' jaj} example, and it 
WILL be useful, I'd like to offer a little caution about 
potential for overextending its usefulness.

In Okrand's example, he is talking about a definite event that 
happens. He uses a combination of {wa' jaj} and {jajvam} in 
order to set a time stamp on the second sentence when he doesn't 
have a definite time relationship between that day and today. It 
is the event that triggers the timestamp.

He could have, argueably, translated this as:

'etlh 'uchchoHlaHDI' tlhIngan puqloD, loD nen moj.

My guess is that such an event is worth about a full day's 
celebration and special notice. One notes the day that one's son 
becomes an adult. One doesn't note the hour.

This use of the word {wa' jaj} to denote the duration 
surrounding the event is not necessarily the same thing as a 
generic term for "someday". Many times, this likely will be 
useful, but I just don't feel like this is license to 
plug'n'play "someday" as a generic English definition for the 
term {wa' jaj}.

charghwI' 'utlh

On Thu, 5 Nov 1998 21:32:05 -0800 (PST) Alan Anderson 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Zrajm jang pagh:
> >>   You better hope and pray that you wake one day in your own world.
> >>   {wa' jaj qo'lIjDaq bIvem; 'e' Datul 'ej 'e' Daqoy'.}
> >
> >Same comments as above about <'e' Datul 'ej Daqoy'>.
> >
> >> Perhaps there is a better/easier way to say "some time", "any
> >> day" or "in the future"? Otherwise what I said about the previous
> >> sentence pretty much applies here too.. (I think I am saying
> >> something like "One day, you in your realm will wake, you hope
> >> that and you beg (for) that."
> >
> >Oh, my. <wa' jaj> just does not work. Klingon does not really have a way to
> >say "someday". The only general word for "in the future" is <tugh> - soon.
> >Other than that, you probably need to use <leS> or <nem> to specify when the
> >event is going to happen.
> 
> As it happens, {wa' jaj} *does* work.  The Klingon Way, page 177:
> 
>     wa' jaj 'etlh 'uchchoHlaH tlhIngan puqloD; jajvetlh loD nen moj.
>     The son of a Klingon is a man the day he can first hold a blade.
> 
> 
> -- ghunchu'wI'



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