tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 02 11:38:13 1999

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RE: Attending a school (was RE: Daq vIDabbogh vIchoH)



charghwI':
> My reflex is to go with {jeS}. [...]  The mission is always
> important to a Klingon, so I'd expect {jeS} to describe what one
> does in a new school.

Holtej: 
: If it weren't Kindergarten, I'd probably prefer {DuSaQDaq HaDchoH}. I really
: want to know whether {jeS} takes an object.  Is it {qep vIjeS} or {qepDaq
: jIjeS}?  I've used the former method, and given recent discoveries about
: {chegh} and verbs of motion, I'm more inclined to expect it to take an
object.

AFAIK, {jeS} "participate" has been used twice, both times in that "Star Trek:
The Experience" communique - *IF* Okrand wrote it:

  laS veghaS HIltonDaq «Hov leng: yIjeSchu'» qaSchoHmo', bIlopqu'meH
   HIlton yIghoS
  Come celebrate the grand opening of "Star Trek: The Experience" at
   the Las Vegas Hilton.  STX

{jeS} may take an object here: {Hov leng: yIjeSchu'} "participate (perfectly)
in Star Trek".  OTOH, this could just be an objectless imperative: "Star Trek:
Participate (perfectly)!".  

  tera' vatlh DIS poH cha'maH loS bIyIn jeSlaHpa' Hoch
  Be the first to journey to the 24th century.  STX

This one is a little confusing (perhaps some punctuation got lost in
transmission):  "You will live (in) the 24th Terran century before everyone
(else?) can participate."  If you believe that {jeS} takes an object, you
would
translate the second clause as "before everyone (else) can participate in it."

Both examples are inconclusive.  Damn those ambiguous third person prefixes!

Of course, if Okrand didn't write the STX communique, these examples are
irrelevant and we're back to square one.  (Hasn't anybody asked him about this
yet?)

Until we learn more, Holtej's suggestion of {DuSaQDaq HaD} "study at
school" is
probably the best solution for now.  ({ghoj} "learn", {qeq} "practice", etc.
would also work.)  After all, "go to school" and "attend school" are both
English idioms. Once years ago when I tried to translate "attend school" for a
Russian speaker, he thought I was talking about a residential boarding
school. 
(Which BTW we know the Klingons have: in TNG "Firstborn", "K'mtar"
[future-Alexander] was desperately trying to convince Worf to send his younger
self to "the training academy at Ogat" - wherever that is.)


-- 
Voragh                       
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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