tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 24 11:02:59 2000
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: mI'mey
Somebody:
>> If the number is zero plus two decimal places (e.g. 0.25), then you have a
>> percentage and can use {vatlhvI'} instead:
>> cha'maH vagh vatlhvI' Hong - QIt yIghoS!
>> Slow to one quarter impulse power. ST5
>> (lit. "Twenty five percent impulse power - proceed slowly!")
[email protected]:
> chay' mu'tlheghvetlh rurbe' : cha'maH vaghvatlh vI' Hong;
> DIvI' Hol mu'mey latlh lo'DI'lu' : "2,500. impulse power" ?
DevID:
: I think /*cha'maH vaghvatlh/ "twenty five hundred" would sound
: as wierd to a Klingon as "ten hundred" (rather than "one thousand")
Depends on your dialect of English. "Ten hundred" (i.e. 1,000) sounds
perfectly fine to me - particularly if you're counting: nine hundred, ten
hundred, eleven hundred, etc.
: or "one thousand hundred" (rather than "one hundred thousand")
: would sound to an English speaker.
This, however, does sound wrong.
Which all goes to show we can't assume that the American English way of
grouping digits in reciting large numbers will be understood by Klingons, other
humans, or even other English-speakers. (Would an English, Irish, Scottish,
Welsh, Canadian, Australian, Caribbean, etc. anglophone ever read 2,500 aloud
as "twenty-five hundred"? Would s/he even understand it if they had never
heard American usage [as unlikely as that might be nowadays?)
For all we know, a Klingon may understand *{cha'maH vaghvatlh} simply as an
ignorant error for {vaghvatlh cha'maH}, or 520. (Well, what can you expect
from aliens and their backwards numbering systems?)
As for how to say "2,500. [twenty-five hundred point] impulse power," this is
wrong even in English or, at least, in my dialect. I've never heard anyone use
a decimal point without at least one numeral following it. I would read this
out as "twenty-five hundred point zero (or "point oh"). Fortunately, we do
know how Klingons recite decimal numbers: they simply read the numerals
*individually*, without grouping them:
HovpoH Hut vagh cha' wa' vI' jav Dujvam 'aghlu'pu'
[This ship was demonstrated on Stardate 9521.6] S33 (untranslated)
wejvatlh loSmaH loS vI' vagh wej 'uj 'aD Duj
Length: 120 M (BoP Poster)
loSmaH jav vI' Soch loS 'uj 'ab meH
Bridge Height: 16.28 M (BoP)
HIvtaHvIS toQDuj cha'vatlh wejmaH Soch vI' vagh chorgh 'uj 'ab 'oH
Attack Formation Height: 82.75 M (BoP)
qughtaHvIS toQDuj HutmaH vI' jav wa' 'uj 'ab 'oH
Cruise Formation Height: 31.56 M (BoP)
SaqtaHvIS toQDuj wa'vatlh loS vI' jav chorgh 'uj 'ab 'oH
Landing Formation Height: 36.46 M (BoP)
cha' vI' vagh choQmey lutoghlu'
Number of Decks: 2.5 (BoP)
jabbI'ID pup: Qapchu'meH 'aqroS chuq: cha' vI' chorgh loghqammey
High Resolution - Maximum Effective Range - 3.5 Light Years (BoP)
jabbI'ID pupHa': Qapchu'meH chuq: chorgh vI' chorgh loghqammey
Medium to Low Resolution - Effective Range - 11 Light Years (BoP)
And so I would say "2500.0 impulse power":
cha vagh pagh pagh vI' pagh Hong
two five zero zero point zero impulse power
But at that speed wouldn't you phrase it as a warp factor {pIvlob} instead?
E.g.:
qughDo motlh: pIvlob vagh
Normal Cruising Speed - Warp 5 (BoP)
'aqroS qughDo: pIvlob Hut vI' vagh
Maximum Cruising Speed - Warp 9.5 (BoP)
I'll leave it to the treknologists on the List to compute the equivalent warp
factor. Does full impulse equal warp factor one? IIRC I've ever heard anyone
refer to more than 100% impulse power on screen.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons