tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 03 14:22:13 1999

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Re: Higher math (was Re: time)



: [Voragh] wrote:
: 
:> There are several more examples of large numbers on the new Klingon
:> Bird-of-Prey poster (KBP) [snip]:
:> 		wejvatlh SochmaH vagh SaD cheb'a'mey ngI' Duj
:> 		Mass: 8.7 KT
:> This is literally "The ship weighs 375,000 {cheb'a'mey}" -- "375 {SaD}",
:> pronounced just as the English "375 thousand".  
: 
: I must say that I'm disappointed. For all the pride Okrand takes 
: in making Klingon not be encoded English, choices like these are 
: not impressive. It just seems lazy of him to not call this:
: 		wejbIp Sochnetlh vaghSaD
: But I certainly accept what he offers. If Okrand is going to 
: handle it the American way, in this kind of context, making 
: {SaD} a separate word makes a lot of sense.

I suspect that if we asked him, Okrand would smile mysteriously and tell us
that in an empire of billions of Klingon speakers living on who knows how
many planets, you would expect several standard ways to read large numbers
aloud.  And so both (if not more) versions can be heard, one no more
"correct" than the other.  Just like telling time. <g>

Perhaps the {wejvatlh SochmaH vagh SaD} style is more common among
non-technical folk, like warriors.  (Though why *this* was the version to
appear on a "technical call-out" poster, a VERY rudimentary blueprint after
all, is a mystery!)  Maybe only statisticians, mathematicians, etc. prefer
using {netlh} and {bIp}.  We have several ways to read "375,000" in
American English; the two most common are "three hundred seventy five
thousand" and "three hundred *and* seventy five thousand".  Strictly
speaking, the latter should mean 75,300 but colloquially it doesn't and
most native speakers understand it what's meant.  

:> Speaking of which... is Okrand's math right?   One {cheb} = ca. 2.25 kg/5
:> lbs, and according to charghwI's interview with Okrand one {cheb'a'} = 9
:> {chebmey}.  So the BoP weighs ca. 7,593,750 kg.  Where did the 8.7 KT
:> figure come from?  Is a kiloton one million tons?
:  
: This is obviously a mess.

"Dammit, Jim!  I'm a linguist, not an engineer."


-- 
Voragh                       
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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