tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Aug 20 21:58:36 2000
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KLBC: Klingons & Bikers
- From: "George \"Furr\" Madison" <[email protected]>
- Subject: KLBC: Klingons & Bikers
- Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 21:57:48 -0700 (PDT)
Some time back, I posted to the list mentioning that I thought Klingons and
bikers had some things in common; I was reminded that it would be
appropriate when I could say it in {tlhingan Hol}, so here we go! I've
included an English version in case my translation is so bad that what I'm
trying to say isn't clear:
-----
Dochmeyvammo' rurchuq tlhInganpu' "Bikers" je:
Bikers and Klingons are similar because:
1: Ha'DIbaH DIr 'oH Sut 'e' tuQ
1: They wear leather clothes.
2: pIj jIb tIq lughaj
2: They often have long hair.
3: pIj rolDu' ghaj
3: They often wear beards.
4: Daqtaghmey qeng
4: They carry large knives.
5: tlhutlh 'ej paw' 'e' lutIv chaH juppu' je
5: They like to drink and brawl with friends.
6: nIvoq 'ej nIvuv 'e' Qatlh Dabaj
jup QaQ law' Hoch QaQ puS Daghaj 'e' Data'chugh
6: It is difficult to gain their trust and respect.
If you do, you'll have the best friend of all.
Most importantly:
potlh'a' 'oH:
7: nIQeH 'e' DaneH
7: You don't want them mad at you.
-----
Numbers 5 and 6 gave me a bit of a problem; I wasn't able to find (or
perhaps I missed) anything solid one way or the other on whether two
sentences joined with {'ej} are a valid "target" for {'e'}. I finally
decided to go with it, given it's a more concise construction and seems to
make sense -- I think it would be clear that {'e'} refers to the whole
{'ej} construction, and not just the sentence closest to {'e'}.
I think there's been a discussion of how to indicate an item that's most
important out of a group, but I couldn't track it down; I think (hope!)
{potlh'a' 'oH} gets the idea across.
In the original posting I made, I brought up the biker expression "Ride to
Live, Live to Ride"; the Honored Beginner's Grammarian pointed out some of
the issues with translating such an expression, so I'm still working on it.
I'm studying examples in _The Klingon Way_ to try and get an idea how to
translate such a core concept into {tlhingan Hol}.
I've had slightly better success in another area. We have very little
vocabulary for ground transport in Klingon, so there's no obvious word for
"motorcycle" available. However, by taking a detour through the English
euphemism "Iron Horse" for a motorcycle, I came to {baS Sargh} or "metal
Sark". It's probably my inexperience with the language, but I wasn't able
to come up with a better approach to the idea of a "made" or "mechanical"
Sark.
And finally, I wish to ask for a bit of help beyond what can be done here
on the mailing list. I do have the tapes _Conversational_ and _Power
Klingon_, but my pronunciation is coming along slowly at best. I have come
up with a name for my motorcycle -- {jachwI' qIj} or "Black Growler" -- but
I want to be certain I can pronounce it correctly in a few weeks when this
will become an issue. ;) If there are people out there who have polished
their pronunciation and would be willing to send me a little digital audio
clip (AIFF format preferred, *uncompressed* WAV will work) saying this
phrase correctly, I would be very grateful. Don't worry about duplication
-- it would probably be useful for me to hear a variety of voices saying
this phrase.
{Qapla'}
George
----
[> George Madison <*> [email protected] <*> Just say NO to razors! <]