tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 07 06:11:53 1999

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Re: transitive verbs

On Fri, 05 Nov 1999 20:20:57 -0800 Ben Gibson 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> I was going to let this pass, however I found charghwI'wIj
> recent post rather insulting in parts and felt that I had to
> respond. And since he posted in public, I feel I must do
> likewise. This started when I asked how can you determine
> whether a verb in tlhIngan Hol is transitive or
> intransitive. I still do not have a complete answer.

I apologize. Having answered the same point more than once, 
feeling like I wasn't being heard, I spoke strongly. 
Clearly, I create more noise than signal when I speak on 
the language, even on fairly obvious points that a 
remarkable number of people agree on. I will seek to return 
to my best practice, which is to stop writing in English at 
all. If I can't say it in Klingon, I'll try to not say it.

Please forgive the obvious mistakes I will make as I do 
this, since I regularly screw up the simple difference 
between {jay'} and {vay'}, the numbers 5 and 6, etc. SuvwI' 
qan vIDa. pIjHa' jIQaptaH. chaq QIbDaq vIDabnISchoH.

Once Krankor vowed to speak only Klingon for a month. He 
asked me to translate everything he said for those who who 
could not speak Klingon. I'm tempted now to challenge 
DraQoS, who is so self-impressed with his dedication to the 
language, to do the same for me. I can dream that it would 
do him as much good as Krankor did me by that act. Then 
again, that means I need to restrict what I write to that 
which I want translated for those who don't speak the 
language...

Maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing, either.

DraQoS, make your choice to accept this challenge or not. 
jISaHbe'. I will offer a piece of advice you will almost 
certainly ignore: Forget any dream of translating anything 
of substance in Klingon until you've spent at least a year 
feeling profound confidence that you can CLEARLY express 
YOU OWN thoughts in Klingon about any topic you believe the 
language can bear. If you have not done that yet, I know 
with a profound certainty you can't possibly appreciate 
that you will live to be embarrassed for the mess you will 
have made of your translation of SOMEONE ELSE'S thoughts.

DaH naDev DIvI' Hol vIlon. not vIlo'qangqa'. chaq loQ 
jISeng 'e' vIghurHa'laH. QIn le' vIjatlhDI' chaq wIvvam 
vIqelqa' pagh QInmeyvam mugh latlh 'e' vItlhob. DIvI' Hol 
wIlo'taHvIS maghoHDI' jImughchoH vaj jImev.

> You question my knowledge and understanding, that is one
> thing. You question my motivations, my honesty, or my honor,
> well that is different. And has no place in this mailing
> list, or in a lingusitics discussion.
> 
> Ben (DraQoS)

vIvuvHa'lu'ba'. qay'be'. jIram. ram ghu'.

latlh HIvje'Daq 'Iw HIq bIr yIqang.

----------------------
charghwI'

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