tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 12 16:34:11 1999
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RE: KLBC : Worf said it...
Koraxis:
> slepaHmey boQong!
> You sleep with harlots.
pagh:
: This doesn't work very well. First of all, if you're insulting a single
: person, the prefix should be <Da-> rather than <bo->. Also, <Qong> just
: means "sleep", not "sleep with", so <vay' DaQong> means "you sleep
: something", which is nonsense in both languages. Klingon has no generic way
: to do what the English word "with" does, but there are many other ways to
: say things like this. For this kind of usage, a typical way to do it is:
: <bIQongtaHvIS vay' Datlhej>. Finally, the suffix on <slobaH> should probably
: be <-pu'> rather than <-mey>. The whole thing winds up as:
: bIQongtaHvIS, slobaHpu' Datlhej.
Not that it has anything to do with sex - at least, I hope it doesn't! -
but Okrand translated "sleep with X" in TKW (p.173):
bIQongtaHvIS nItlhejchugh targhmey bIvemDI' nItlhej ghIlab ghewmey.
If you sleep with targs, you'll wake up with glob flies.
Notice how he handled "sleep with" and "wake up with" by splitting the
ideas up into two separate verbs: "If targs accompany you while you sleep,
glob flies will accompany you when you wake up." As pagh recommends, using
{tlhej} "accompany" is a good way to handle the "with" of accompaniment ("I
went with him"). Similarly, {lo'} "use" works in rendering instrumental
"with" ("I stabbed him with my knife").
: A bigger question is whether Klingons equate "sleep with" with sex in the
: way that terrans do.
"... in the way that *anglophones* do" you mean. "Sleep with" is a modern
English euphemism for "mate with" which replaced the much earlier "know",
used inter alia in Shakespeare and the King James Bible. Neither
euphemism, of course, has any relevance for Klingons... or other Terrans
for that matter.
: I strongly suspect they do not. Instead of using the English idiom "sleep
with",
: you need to be literal and go with "mate with" - <ngagh>.
: slobaHpu' Dangagh.
Which verb, you will notice, can take an object: "mate with (someone)",
i.e. "screw (someone)" or "f**k (someone)". No need to use {tlhej} here!
{ngagh} is more direct - as you might expect. It's something you do to
someone, not with them.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons