tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 26 10:10:27 2001
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RE: KLBC: Dab
Agnieszka wrote:
> Does this mean we can translate "Where do you live?"
> in two different ways? If so, which is better?
>
> (2a) nuqDaq bIDab?
> (2b) nuqDaq DaDab?
DloraH, BG:
: A discussion I saw once was, because Dab by definition includes the
: locative, when asking the question can one use nuq: nuq DaDab?
:
: But in the end, the proper klingon way is: nuqDaq DaDab?
In asking "Where do you live?" one can be proper, or one can be idiomatic.
Here's Marc Okrand's 7/99 startrek.klingon post on {Dab}:
"Actually, the most common form of the question "Where do you live?" is not a
question at all, but a command such as: {Daq DaDabbogh yIngu'} "Identify the
place where you live" ... Perhaps a translation such as "Identify the place
that you live at" or "Identify the place that you inhabit" is more revealing.
Answers are likely to be brief and to the point: {Daqvam} "this place", {pa'}
"there", {naDev} "here", {qachvetlh} "that building", {Qo'noS} "Kronos". It is
possible, however, to respond with a full sentence: {Daqvam vIDab} "I live at
this place", {pa' vIDab} "I live there", {naDev vIDab} "I live here",
{qachvetlh vIDab} "I live in/at that building", {Qo'noS vIDab} "I live on
Kronos".
"Of the three suggested ways to ask "Where do you live?" the first is the
most acceptable: {nuq DaDab} "What do you inhabit? What do you dwell at?" ...
The English translations of {nuq DaDab} are very awkward (from an English point
of view) and don't get across the sense of the Klingon all that well. The less
literal "Where do you live?" is what is really being asked. In Klingon, when
one lives in a place or dwells in a place, he or she is thought of as
"occupying" or "inhabiting" that place; not doing something at that location,
but doing something to it (occupying it)."
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons