Re: KLBC challenge

["William H. Martin" <whm2m@cms.mail.virginia.edu>]

On Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:18:43 -0400 Jeremy Silver 
<jeremy@mupwi.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> On 29-Jun-99, William H. Martin wrote:
> 
> >Ask me a question. In Klingon. If you think this assignment is 
> >too easy, then make it an inventive question. If you think this 
> >is too hard, make it a simple one.
> 
> First to lay a little groundwork.
> pa'DajDaq tlhIngan SuvwI'. 

Notice that you don't have any verb in that collection of words 
with a period at the end. You'd need a verb before that became a 
sentence. What does the Klingon warior DO in his room? "In his 
room, the Klingon Warrior..."

> lojmItDaq muplu' pagh wab chenmoHmeH lojmIt 'In chu'lu'.

This is pretty good. It might be a little clearer if you dropped 
the {-Daq} from the first word. One does not strike at the 
door's location. One strikes the door. In English, you knock ON 
the door, but you strike the door. Prepositions are implied in 
some verbs toward their direct objects, especially when you 
cross language barriers.

> 'em lojmItDaq 'Iv leghlaHbe' SuvwI'.

You were trying something really interesting here. Let's polish 
it a bit. Realize that in Klingon, the word {'Iv} serves only 
one of the two functions that the word "who" serves in English. 
In English, it is the question word and it is also the relative 
pronoun. Klingon doesn't have a relative pronoun. It uses 
relative clauses instead. You aren't asking a question here, so 
{'Iv} is not the right word.

I'm tempted to cast this one for you, but you are SOOO close. I 
want to give you another chance. Think of it as: "The warrior 
cannot see the person who stands at the door's area behind." 
Consider what that would do to your word order, since it is the 
door's area behind and not the area behind's door. Also look 
into the verb suffix {-bogh}. Now, try again. And don't take my 
English word order too seriously. Use good Klingon word order 
for the whole sentence.

> The question.
> nuq jach SuvwI'?
> "yI'el", "pe'el", "'el" ghap jach'a'?

nap. <<yI'el!>> lojmIt mup wa' ro' neH. latlh wIvHey tu'lu':

<<nuqneH!>> vaj ramchu' nuv mI'.

> "yI'ngu''egh", "pe'ngu''egh", "ngu'" ghap jach'a'?

<<yIngu''egh!>> Hoch SuvwI'pu' DarI'be'chugh vaj Hoch SuvwI' 
DarI'laH.

> "yIDuv wa' 'ej SoH ghovmojpu'" jach'a'?

I don't understand the word {ghovmojpu'}. My guess is that it 
should be {ghovmoHpu'}, but I don't understand what {-pu'} is 
doing there, and with {SoH} in the object position, I strongly 
suspect that we have a missing verb prefix.

Meanwhile, I'll point out a huge cultural presumption that you 
are making here. I honestly think that if you knock on a 
Klingon's door, he would probably look around and wonder what 
the noise is. Are you nailing something to his door? Why are you 
beating on the door? If you wanted to come in, why on Kronos 
would you not just open the door and come in? You want my 
PERMISSION to enter? How... how... how.... HUMAN of you! My 
temptation is to pull out a disruptor and dispatch you through 
the door. What an annoyance!

> nuq?
> 
> 
> -- 
>    Jeremy Silver   |\   jeremy@mupwi.demon.co.uk
>  __________________| \  j.silver@elsevier.co.uk
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charghwI' 'utlh