tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 02 13:49:38 1999

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Re: Hi, I'm new here...

From: John Halliday <[email protected]>

>Your argument is convincing.  I'm always looking for ways to improve my
>translation.  tanx.
>
>(btw, I wanted to give that first sentence in tlhingan Hol, the closest I
coud
>get was {ponlI' ghoHpu'lIj}.  However, I am fairly sure that a few rules
were
>broken by putting a noun suffix on a perfective verb. Help!)

English frequently states things with "this is that."  "These are those."
The verb "to be" is used everywhere, including in this sentence.

Klingon doesn't have "to be," and it doesn't have a verb that we know of for
"be convincing" or "argument."  So, you're going to have to find another way
to attack the problem with tools we do know.

For one thing, let's get rid of the idea of "argument."  I wasn't arguing, I
was explaining.  In Klingon, "argue" probably doesn't mean "present a line
of reasoning" as it does in English (though the Klingons may associate the
end result the same way we do!).  Let's go for {QIj} "explain" instead.

Now, there are a few possibilities.  For one thing, you might try the suffix
{-chu'} "perfectly."  {bIQIjchu'} "You explain perfectly."  If I explain
perfectly, then there was no flaw with my reasoning, so unless you're
irrationally stubborn, I convinced you.  Actually, in this context I'd say
{bIQIjchu'pu'} "You've explained perfectly."  Since you're probably now
convinced, the explaining has been completed.  The concept and the action is
whole and done.

Another possibility is {-DI'}.  {bIQIjDI' chopon} "When you explained, you
convinced me."  Again, if you want the idea that the explaining has been
completed and is whole, you could say {bIQIjpu'DI' chopon}.  If you were
talking about my ability to convince people in general with my explanation,
you could say {bIQIjpu'DI' bIpon} "When you had completed explaining, you
convinced (people in general)."

There might even be other ways to say this, though I'm not going to look for
them now.  Just remember that when you can't think of a way to say something
without breaking the rules, you can probably reverse the way you say the
sentence and make it work out.

SuStel
Stardate 99088.6

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