tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 28 08:42:06 2000

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RE: Caribbean-Klingon tale



>> Here you have a short tale of a Caribbean dialect >>from Venezuela, I've taken it from the >>book "Estudios de Tipología Lingüística" (Tovar, >>Ed.Istmo, Madrid, 1997), and I've translated it into >>Klingon because of the second sentence, where the >>main characters fight... butting their heads!
>>
>> paghmo' ghoHchuq cha' loDHom
>>
>> 1- yIttaHDI' cha' loDHom, wa' naH lutu'.
>
>Note that {-taHDI'} is almost always better stated as >{taHvIS}. The {-DI'} suffix more typically functions >as a sort of event trigger. It points to a specific >moment that begins when this verb goes into action. >chotIchDI' qaqIp. That sort of thing. It rarely works >with {-taH}. Meanwhile, {-vIS} REQUIRES {-taH}. It >simply indicates that the action tagged with {->taHvIS} was occurring (with no reference to beginning >or ending the action) while the action of the main >verb occurred. I think this fits your meaning better. >The event here is {tu'}, not {yIt}. The latter was a >process that was ongoing at the moment of the event.

Yes, you're right: {yIttaHvIS}

>> 2- ghungmo' SuvchoH loDHompu', 'ej pe'vIl paw'.
>> 3- ngugh ghu' tu' vay', 'ej <<mevyap!>> ja'.

>nuqDaq mu'vam Datu'? <<mevyap>> vIngu'be'. loQ >vIyaj, 'ach mu' tetlhwIjDaq vISamlaHbe'.

{mevyap} -> KGT p.113:
"it comes from two Klingon verbs, {mev} ("stop, cease") and {yap} ("be enough, be sufficient"). No doubt in the past, the locution was longer, perhaps {yImev, yap!} ("stop! it's enogh"). The dropping of the imperative prefix {yI-, pre-} is what would be expected in Clipped Klingon. The two words have been used in juxtaposition for so long, they have come to be accepted as a single, though grammatically  peculiar, word."

>> 4- HochvaD naH wav ghaH 'e' jang chaH.

>lujang. Hmmm. jIyajchu'be'. They answered that he >divide the vegetable for everybody. ?

Yes, {lujang}. And yes, that's what I wanted to mean: they answered that he divide the vegetable for them (for everybody who was there, obviously).

>But who asked? Why answer when nobody asked? Are they >making a request?

Nobody asked, but in sentence 3 the third guy {ja'}, so they reply to that {mevyap!}.

>> 5- naH poSmoH ghaH, 'ej chIm naH ghIq 'e' lutob.

>He opened the vegetable, and then THEY proved that it >was empty? Huj.

Perhaps better than {lutob} would be {lulegh}. HISlaH, Huj 'ach teH.

Anyway, I just have translated a native Caribbean tale. Do you demand unquestionable logic to English tales? Do English wolves speak? It's just a tale! Have fun!

>> --ghaHbe'wI'

>SarrIS

--ghaHbe'wI'


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