tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 10 19:01:23 2001
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RE: KLBC-Story
I agree with ghunchu'wI'. I think your story was fine completely omitting
anything like "One day..."
You think it sounds choppy? Well, in Klingon, that IS style. My favorite
exchange in discussing Klingon on this list is still pinned up on my office
wall at work. I don't have it with me now, but as I remember it, Nick said,
"Is it just me, and I happen to know for a fact that it's not, or does
speaking Klingon actually force you to be rude?"
The response (and now I've forgotten who responded) was, "No. Speaking
Terran forces you to be wittering, vague and indecisive."
You don't need to say, "One day, a vicious targ ate his pet." Just say, "A
vicious targ ate his pet." THEY MEAN THE SAME THING. Adding "One day"
doesn't do anything but make more sound or consume more ink."
charghwI' 'utlh
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Melody Jeffcoat [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 10:46 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: KLBC-Story
>
>
>
> On Wed, 9 May 2001, Alan Anderson wrote:
>
> > ja' yeygha':
> > >The main problem I ran into was how to say "one day". I wanted
> to say "One
> > >day a vicious targ ate his pet." Is there anyway to do that?
>
> ghunchu'wI':
> > Is it important that the event occurred on one day rather than
> two? That
> > it occurred on a specific day rather than a different one? The
> use of "one
> > day" in English narrative is just a stylistic feature, and doesn't carry
> > much meaning beyond "exactly when this happened is not important". If
> > something isn't important to an idea, Klingon typically ignores it
> > completely (with the prominent exception of indefinite subjects).
>
> I didn't necessarily need a direct translation of "one day", just a
> Klingon equivalent (if one exists).
>
> I just wanted some way of transitioning from one sentence to the next,
> because what I wrote sounded choppy to me...probably a human judgement I
> guess :) But does Klingon have any such stylistic devices to accomplish
> this? Do we have any information on Klingon story-telling traditions? It
> seems to me that if Klingons tell stories, then they would probably use
> special linguistic constructions. Hmm...now I am intrigued by the
> possibilities :)
>
> -yeygha'
>
> [email protected]
>
> Real men milk bears.
>
>