tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 30 11:57:13 1999

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Re: KLBC: Is this correct?



On Wed, 30 Jun 1999 14:21:18 -0400 Scott Pakin 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> First, let me say I'm a *complete* beginner to the language and to this
> mailing list (both ~1 day), so please excuse any breaches of etiquette I'm
> about to make.

You are welcome here. We have a position here called "Beginner's 
Grammarian" who is responsible for assisting beginners with the 
language. The usual BG is pagh, but he is away until Friday. I'm 
charghwI' and I'm standing in until he gets back.
 
> I thought it would be fun to use some pIqaD in a presentation I'm giving on
> my thesis research.  The topic is "collective communication," as in,
> "communication performed by a collective (of computers)."  According to
> Michael Rudolph's English-tlhIngan/thlIngan-English Dictionary (which I ran
> across online), "collect" is translated as <boS> and "communicate" as
> <Qum>.  So would "collective communication" therefore be translated into
> <QumwI' boS>?  Or would that be "collecting communicator" or somesuch?

First, let's address the issue of copyright. If Paramount finds 
Michael Rudolph's online dictionary, he could very well find 
himself in court. If you want Klingon words, you need to buy two 
books, both by Marc Okrand, published by Simon & Schuster (sp?). 
The first is The Klingon Dictionary. It gives you in excess of 
1,500 Klingon words, plus an overall description of the grammar 
of the language. It is essential.

Second is Klingon for the Galactic Traveler. It gives you more 
words, plus descriptions of Klingon culture and its relationship 
to language, jargon, slang and dialects. Add to this the New 
Words List that is linked to from http://www.kli.org which 
lists words not in either of the other word lists and you have 
about 2300 words that all of us agree on (more or less) so you 
can communicate with others using the language.
 
> I didn't see an affix in the list in the back of the mu'ghom that looked
> like it would convert "communicate" into "communication;" <-wI'> just
> seemed the closest.  Similarly, it appears like verbs can be used as
> adjectives without any modifications.  Can they?

Please understand that we are a lot less interested in 
translating an English term than we are in speaking the 
language. Klingon is not a code. It is a language. You don't 
just unplug an English word and plug a Klingon word in its place.

I could put a good bit of work into trying to translate the term 
you wish to translate, but I won't. Instead, I'll invite you to 
learn how to actually speak the language. That is what we do 
here. I am VERY willing to put out the effort to help you learn 
to speak the language. If your interest doesn't run that deep, 
then neither does mine.
 
> Thanks in advance for your help (and patience!),
> -- Scott

charghwI' 'utlh



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