tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 09 12:23:58 2002
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Re: Is this valid Klingon?
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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