tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 09 09:43:59 2000
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Re: KLIC: UserFriendly translation
> > <nuHlIj DawIvpu', vaj yISuv> You have chosen your weapon, so
> > fight! (TKW
> > p.151)
jatlh charghwI':
> I believe that this is not technically correct grammar. He has jammed two
> separate sentences together, separated by a comma, very similar to his
> translation for dog commands in CK (if I remember correctly). It came out
> something like {'uSDaj yIchop, yIchev.}
Ha'DIbaH ra'lu'; vaj moHaq lo'be'lu'. (sic!) 'ach qarbej mu'tlhegh
HochHom. jatlh Okrand 'uSDaj chop, chev!
When commanding animals, you don't use a prefix. But the rest of this
sentence is correct. Okrand says /'uSDaj chop, chev!/
> There are very few examples of
> Okrand doing this. My guess is that he is implying urgency, so jamming
> together sentences with commas instead of periods between them suggests a
> stream of words spoken without the usual pause between sentences.
tlhIngan Hol jatlhlu'DI', motlhqu'law' wanI' DaDelpu'bogh. roD ram cha'
mu'tlhegh joj. "Sentence As Object" qellu'DI', wa' mu'tlhegh retlhDaq 'oH
latlh mu'tlhegh'e'. rurbogh mu'tlheghmey luqellu'DI', wa' mu'tlhegh
retlhDaq 'oH latlh mu'tlhegh'e'. tlhIngan tIgh: SuvwI' DevmeH paq vIlaDDI',
Sochlogh wanI'vam vItu'. chaq wa'maH wa'logh vItu'. lururpu' DIpmey:
jatlhlu' beyHom bey bey'a'.
mu'tlheghmey SeHmeH mu'tlheghmey lughItlhlu'be'. rurbe' DIvI' Hol
mu'tlhegh. yevlu' 'e' 'ang Deghmeyvam, qoj QIch 'ang. mu'tlheghmey choHbe'
Deghmeyvam.
Actually, this sort of thing is quite common in Klingon. The boundaries
between sentences are usually very weak. The Sentence As Object
construction is really two sentences which are jammed together. Similies
are two sentences pushed together. I find between 7 and 11 instances of
varing degrees of this in THE KLINGON WAY. We also see nouns doing
something similar in two examples, one of which was /beyHom bey bey'a'/.
Klingon does not use the punctuation we are familiar with, but we tend to
add it to indicate pauses and tone. It has no grammatical function.
> > <bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh> Surrender or die! (TKD p.170)
jatlh charghwI':
> There is no conjunction needed here because {bIje'be'chugh} is a dependent
> clause. Quite a few people have failed to notice this in earlier
> examinations of this example, arguing that {vaj} works as a conjunction.
It
> doesn't. It feels like it does, but it doesn't.
qarchu'. wot choHbogh chuvmey'e' 'oH (bIH? luchoHbogh?). qay 'e' noH pagh
jatlhlu'chugh <bIjeghbe'chugh nom bIHegh>.
Quite right. It is an adverbial, modifying the verb. No one would have a
problem following /bIjeghbe'chugh nom bIHegh/.
pelIjQo'! chuvmey bIH <vaj>'e' muvwI'mey'e' je. roD jaS lo'lu', 'a wa' mu'
Segh bIH. ghu'vammo' rut chaq SIgh'egh 'ej mIS'eghmoH.
But let's not forget that /vaj/ and the conjunctions are all /chuvmey/.
Klingon grammarians do not classify them differently, though they tend to be
used differently. Because of this, it's possible that their functions might
bleed over into each other from time to time.
ja'chuqghachvamvaD KLIC perlu'. KLIC luqel jabbI'IDghom chut 'e' vISovbe',
'a qechvam yIpab. DIvI' Hol tlhIngan Hol je tIlo'taH bojatlhtaHvIS.
This discussion is labeled KLIC. Though I'm not aware that KLIC has become
officially sanctioned by the list, let's keep up the idea. Post English and
Klingon versions of what you say.
SuStel
Stardate 522.1