tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 29 13:39:36 1999
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Re: KLBC challenge
charghwI':
> Dat batlh 'oH 'ach DaSamnIS.
HomDoq:
: (assuming it was supposed to be <<Dat 'oH batlh'e'>>)
: Honour is everywhere, but you've got to look for it
: and you'll find it.
:
: (See, it's not at all easy for me to translate <<Sam>> here...)
"... but you've got to find it." The idea of "seek" is implied. Compare:
HaqwI''e' DaH yISam
Find the SURGEON now! TKD
Qel vISamnIS.
I need to find a doctor. CK
English "find" also means "to come upon by accident" - {tu'} "discover, find"
in Klingon - which HomDoq was trying to avoid in his translation:
reH HIvje'lIjDaq 'Iwghargh Datu'jaj!
May you always find a bloodworm in your glass! PK
I.e. may you find it by happy accident, you should be so lucky. But how {Sam}
is different from {tu'} in:
QumwI'wIj vItu'laHbe'
I can't find my communicator. TKD
is beyond me. Presumably the speaker is actively looking for his
communicator,
so why doesn't he say {Sam}? Perhaps he's just glancing around cursorily, but
hasn't started to seriously "seek and find" it yet.
: *nowhere* Damugh 'e' vItul :)
I could find no example of "nowhere" used in canon. Lacking a specific word,
try {vogh} "somewhere, someplace":
vogh vItu'laH
I can find it somewhere.
vogh vItu'laHbe'
I can't find it anywhere. (colloq.: "I can't find it nowhere.")
vogh tu'lu'be'
It is nowhere to be found. (lit. "It is not located somewhere.")
As we've long known, in Klingon the focus is on the verb. Although {-be'} is
attached to the verb, it generally seems to negate the entire utterance, which
in English is sometimes signalled by a change in the adverb from
"somewhere" to
"nowhere". We shouldn't really expect Klingon to have an exact set of
matching
adverbs to English, even if we were to have a full and complete list. Some
may
be more inclusive than ours (e.g. {pagh} and {vay'}), some surely make much
finer distinctions.
This is one for Maltz.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons