tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Apr 11 14:51:38 2002
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RE: need help on translation
Deghnegh Qor wrote:
>Now I have another question which is the word chu' in TKD p83 both words
>have ' after them. How does one when writing tell the differance between
>the two words.
Like all Klingon homonyms: By how they are used, by what prefixes and
suffixes they have, and by the context.
{chu'} "be new" is a quality and can modify nouns, like adjectives in
English. Qualities don't take an object and can be used attributively
(e.g. {paq chu' vIlaD} "I'm reading a new book") or predicatively (e.g.
{chu' paq vIlaDbogh} "the book which I'm reading is new"). Also, being a
quality, {chu'} "be new" by itself will never take the object verb
prefixes. You can't "new" something.
{chu'} "to engage, activate, turn on (a device)" is a transitive verb and
takes an object (i.e. "activate something"). E.g.: {So'wI' yIchu'} "Engage
the cloaking device!", {So'wI' vIchu'ta'} "I have engaged the cloaking
device", {So'wI' chu'lu'ta'} "The cloaking device has been engaged",
{Dachu'Ha'ta''a'} "Have you deactivated it?".
And there's another one from KGT: {chu'} "play (a musical
instrument)". This is also a transitive verb and usually takes an
object. E.g." {DIr 'In chu' wo'rIv} "Worf is playing a drum", {DIron
Dachu'laH'a'} "Can you play the bagpipes?"
You can also combine these verbs:
DIr 'InDaj chu' chu' wo'rIv.
Worf is playing his new drum.
{DIr 'InDaj chu'} "his new drum"
{chu' wo'rIv} "Worf plays it"
chu''a' DIr 'In chu'bogh wo'rIv?
Is the drum Worf is playing new?.
{chu''a'} "Is it new?"
{DIr 'In chu'bogh wo'rIv} "the drum which Worf is playing"
jonpIn, So'wI' chu' yIchu'!
Engineering Officer, activate the new cloaking device!
{So'wI' chu'} "the new cloaking device"
{yIchu'} "activate it!"
You do have to pay attention and rely on the context. By itself, {So'wI'
chu'} can also be translated as "He/She/It activates the cloaking device",
{chu''a' DIr 'In} as "Does the drum activate it?", {chu' wor'Iv} as "Worf
is new", {yIchu'} as "Be new!" or "Play it!" or "Activate it!", etc. The
context will almost always tell you which translation makes sense and which
translation is nonsense. Fortunately, people rarely say or write anything
without a context in real life - outside of bare examples in grammar books
and language mailing lists that is!
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons