tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 29 19:41:12 1999
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Re: KLBC challenge
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC challenge
- Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 22:43:18 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
- Priority: NORMAL
On Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:18:43 -0400 Jeremy Silver
<[email protected]> 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 |\ [email protected]
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