tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 28 11:22:55 2001
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Re: Klingon translation interest
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Klingon translation interest
- Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 17:17:05 GMT
> Jiri:
> > > Hmm, <<jaw ghoS 'e' jIH>> (I am the Way). But there's probably better
> > > ways of saying that.
>
> charghwI':
> > As others have pointed out, this is gibberish.
>
> Then again, the original wasn't exactly literal, either...
>
> "I am `approach the Lord'" doesn't seem any less sensible than "None enters
> Heaven but through me".
*heaven* DaghoS DaneH. qachaw'be'chugh, pa' DaghoSlaHbe'.
or
*heaven* DaghoS 'e' qachaw'laH jIH neH.
> > If you really wanted to say, "I am the Way," then you should say, {He'a'
> > jIH,} and a Klingon would understand completely and appropriately walk
> > right over top of you. With spiked boots.
>
> In context, that's not understanding, but misunderstanding completely.
This depends upon your perspective, of course.
> As for pronouns taking other pronouns, I probably wouldn't, but... <<SoH
> jIH. wa' maH.>> (I am you. We are one.) It feels like it could be a quote
> out of somewhere (in English), but then again maybe not... I suspect if I
> was actually writing that, I'd end up avoiding that formulation.
>
> > > > Do you mean how can Sentence as object be used when the second verb
> > > > is a verb of quality? They don't take objects, so you can't.
>
> > > Yeah, that's what I meant. Is there a standard idiom around that?
>
> > SuvwI' Hol DaghojnISchoH.
>
> Obviously :-)
>
> I was just wondering if there's some twisted <<tu'lu'>> formulation
> floating around to solve this, or if I need to re-cast it each time.
> I guess it's the latter.
There is almost always a way to say anything, so long as you don't insist that
the Klingon has to parallel the English in both word choice and grammatical
construction. Klingon is not a code. It is a language. You don't encode an
English sentence into Klingon and then decode it back to the same English
sentence. You express an idea imperfectly in English and then express the same
idea imperfectly in Klingon. This is the nature of language. The same idea can
spawn very different expressions in Klingon than in English.
> Jiri
charghwI'