tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Nov 27 22:53:04 1999
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RE: KLBC Original Stuff (was Help With a Word...)
- From: "Eric Andeen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC Original Stuff (was Help With a Word...)
- Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 23:59:27 -0700
- Importance: Normal
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
jatlh juDmoS:
> Very well, then. I shall attempt to translate something
> of my own. Here goes.
>
> yaHmeyDaq vumtaH tamtaH je' ' qulSuS ' pongta'bogh
> tlhIngan qughwI' meH beq.
> The bridge crew of the Klingon cruiser qulSuS sat
> silently tending to their duties.
Interesting punctuation style for the proper name. I've not seen it before,
but I kind of like it.
Two problems. The first is simple - you've got the wrong conjunction. For
sentences (like <vumtaH> and <tamtaH>), you need a sentence (verb)
conjunction rather than a noun conjunction, and it needs to go between the
two sentences: <vumtaH 'ej tamtaH>. That is a very strange sounding pair, by
the way, for people used to English, where <tam> is really an adjective, but
it makes perfect sense in Klingon.
The second problem is a bit more complicated. You've got <' qulSuS '
pongta'bogh tlhIngan qughwI'> for "The Klingon cruiser called Firewind." The
problem is that the way <pong> works is that the subject is the thing
calling the name, the object is the name itself, and the thing named gets a
<-vaD> put on it. For example "charghwI' called the officer matlh", you
would say <yaSvaD matlh pong charghwI'>. Taking this into account, you've
got "The Klingon cruiser called (something) Firewind". You could think a lot
about recasting this with some other sort of <-bogh> clause, but this could
get ugly really quickly. Instead you could just say <tlhIngan qughwI' '
qulSuS '> - "The Klingon cruiser Firewind". This sounds more natural.
Also, I don't remember offhand, but isn't <qughDuj> the standard Klingon
word for "cruiser".
> jIHDaq leghlaHta' 'oH neH logh chImqu' .
> Only vast, empty space could be seen on the viewscreen.
Subject/object problems here. The thing that is seen is the vast, empty
space, so it has to be the object of <legh>. The subject is probably the
bridge crew. If the subject is "They (the bridge crew)", then the prefix
needs to change just a bit:
jIHDaq logh chImqu' neH luleghlaH.
> Okay, It doesn't even rhyme. How's the grammar ?
qabqu'be' pab. Qagh puS vItu'bej, 'ach tI'meH ngeD.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian