tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Dec 08 05:54:56 2002
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Re: Language questions
- From: Quvar valer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Language questions
- Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2002 12:40:33 +0100
Am 08.12.2002 02:04:51, schrieb "Christian Kisa" <[email protected]>:
>I am new to the list. I have been studying Klingon off and on for the
>last few years. It is a linguistic curiosity for me.
Welcome to the list, Christian!
My name is Quvar, I am the current Beginners' Grammarian. My job here is to help out newcomers and beginners in learning Klingon, which means the people who
did it before me have decided you can trust me to evaluate your work.
Include the letters "KLBC" in the subject line of a message, it marks it as a beginner level topic. This may be a question for me, or just conversation with other
beginners in general.
>There are a few lexical gaps I have been trying to fill.
Sometimes there is no equivalent in Klingon for some lexical issues. Some things we need need to recast (say it in a different way), and sometimes there even is no way
to say it in klingon (like the color purple).
While learning Klingon, one should not try to find parallels in english. Try to think Klingon.
>not offensive if I ask my language questions in this list.
No, that's what the list is for. The rule is: we can talk *about* Klingon or *in* Klingon.
>To be more specific, I am looking for the Klingon words (or expressions)
>to translate the following ideas:
>1. momentarity, briefly, for a second, for a moment
Yes, what does it mean? Klingon is very context-related, depending on what situation you want to describe, there are different ways to translate these ideas, even
when there is no litteral translation.
Possibilities are maybe the adverbials {DaH} "now", {loQ} "slightly", {tlhoS} "nearly", {qen} "recently". Or you say it as a phrase {qaStaHvIS poH nI'} "during a
short timeperiod"...
>2. gender
Easy answer: there is no gender in Klingon. {ghaH} can mean both "she" and "he".
If you want to distinguish, add either the word {be'} for "woman, female" or {loD} for "man, male"
{ghung loD} "the man is hungry"
{tlhIngan ghaH} "he/she is a klingon"
{tlhIngan ghaH be''e'} "as for the woman, she is a klingon"
(read TKD section 6.3 to understand this construction, if you don't)
>3. homosexual, gay (maybe gay Klingons don't exist? I was trying to
>construct an expression like "attracted to same gender" or "likes to
>have sex with same gender")
I'm sure klingons have no gays (at least officially). It is known that all beings can be attracted to the same gender, even animals do. But I think Klingons would never
talk about things like that, maybe they would not accept this in their society. So there probably is no word.
It's a good idea, what you propose. If klingons would talk about, they would probably say "this man likes men" or so.
>4. to spend (time) (e.g. they spent the day doing this)
recast! Say "during the whole day, they were doing this":
{qaStaHvIS jaj naQ jagh luSuvtaH}
"they spent the whole day fighting the enemy"
>The Klingon Dictionary lists "juS" as "pass". In what meaning? pass as
>in "I passed by a tree" or "I passed my exams" or other meaning of pass?
It's the first one, passing a tree.
We have canon from one of the tapes:
{HoS lIngwI' wIjuS. 'IH, qar'a'?}
"We're passing a power generator. It's beautiful, isn't it?"
>Thanks!
qay'be'!
No problem!
Quvar
Beginners' Grammarian
ghojwI'pu'wI' vISaH