Re: Is this valid Klingon?

[slapdash <slapdash@enteract.com>]

Tad: I hadn't really thought much about what laSvarghHom really
meant, as you'll soon see why...

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002, Qov wrote:
>> laSvarghHomchajDaq pIwvetlh ngoy' net Qub

> The controversy is that we have no evidence from the definition or use
> that ngoy' is transitive.

Ah, bugger.  That hadn't occurred to me when I wrote it, but it started
to make me wonder last night, and now you've pointed out exactly why...

> To be safe, I would say:
> laSvarghHomchajDaq pIwvetlhvaD ngoy' net Qub

There's just one problem with that -- not in the Klingon, mind...

I'd tried to enter the phrase in the Great Klingon Pangram contest, but
my email apparently didn't get through.  Adding -vaD may make it more
valid, but it makes it less close to a "perfect" pangram.  Bummer...
Here's hoping Maltz will someday clarify ngoy' so I know if I wrote a
valid entry or not.  :-)

> I would translate it into English as "It is thought that they are 
> responsible for those odours in their production unit(s)."

I had been more TKD-literal and translated it as "One thinks they are
responsible for the odors at their small factory".  Not actually being
a Klingon speaker, I wasn't sure if "responsible" would come across in
the sense of "they're creating the smell" or "they're supposed to stop/
reduce the smell".  Even more so, I'd hoped it would have a slight
suggestion of "regardless of what they make there, it is THEY who cause
the smell".  :-)

> If I knew what was being produced I could form a clearer mind picture of 
> what a laSvarghHom might be.  Around here odours and laSvargh go with pulp 
> and paper mills, which can be divided up two ways.  Each line from start to 
> finish might be a laSvarghHom, or each section of the process might be 
> taken as a laSvarghHom.

As I noted to Tad above, that wasn't as important as just whether the
sentence as a whole was valid.  I had taken it literally as a "small
factory" without even considered whether it might instead mean a process
line or a work station or who knows what else...

Paper mills?  Heh, like driving through Kaukauna...  I know those smells.
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