tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 01 05:12:49 2001

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Re: never bet on Star Trek trivia...



> >    Never bet on Star Trek trivia if your opponent speaks Klingon.
> >    - Ancient Kung Foole Proverb
> >    tlhIngan Hol jatlhlaHchugh ghollI' Hov leng ngoDHommey'e' yISuDQo'qu'

TPO:
> The first half is good.

Thank you.

> When I read the definition of SuD, I don't see it taking an object.

Well, I didn't give it one...

> Perhaps:  Hov leng ngoDHommey SovlIj toblu'taHvIS  yISuDQo'.
> "Don't gamble while one tests your knowledge of Star Trek trivia."

That'd be more explicit, yes.

> > nIDghachwIj:

> Instead of trying to turn this nice verb into a noun, lets use it as a
> verb.
> jInID:

Ah yes. I don't speak Klingon well enough to do this second pass of
translation...

> > Can ((-qu')) go after ((-Qo')) like that?

> TKD p49 shows multiple rovers on a verb.  To ME the sentence is
> understandable; BUT on p47 "Unlike -be', the position of -Qo' does not
> change: it occurs last, unless followed by a Type 9 suffix."  Does this
> mean other rovers can't go after it, or just other Type #?

That's about as far as I got, too...

> > If not, how is ((not)) used in a negative imperative sentence?

> [not] is an adverbial and is placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Yeah, but is it ((not yISuD)) or ((not yISuDQo')) ?

Or perhaps I should rephrase it altogether, ((bISuDchugh Dujeybej)), but
then I'd have to completely re-do the sentence from scratch. As I should
while translating.

> > I originally put in ((vaj)) just after ((ghollI')), to separate it from
> > the ((Hov leng ngoDHommey)), but on second thoughts I guess the other
> > reading is just as good, so I changed it back to the ambiguous form...

> Okrand has used punctuation, so why can't we?  Put a comma in there.

True... then again I kind-of liked the subtle ambiguity...


Thanks for the answer!

Jiri
-- 
Jiri Baum <[email protected]>
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
visit the MAT LinuxPLC project at http://mat.sf.net


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