tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 08 17:07:46 2002
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Re: "Floreat Majestas"
On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 09:26:58PM +0100, qe'San (temp ADSL email) wrote:
> I have a question re prosper.. in TKD it's listed as
> chep - prosper, be prosperous (v)
> is it "(to) prosper" + "be prosperous" or just the latter.
The two comma-separated translations are independent - each by
itself is a translation of the Klingon. More than one is given
solely to clarify the meaning, since there's frequently not a
one-to-one match where the exact set of ideas encompassed by the
Klingon word is also encompassed by a single English one.
In this case I personally don't see any difference between the two
English glosses; "I prosper", "I am prosperous" - two different
ways of saying the same thing. They are probably both given because
of the way Klingon treats "adjectives".
Normally, what English expresses with "to be" plus an adjective,
Klingon expresses with a bare verb. For instance, we have an
adjective "green", but Klingon instead has the verb "SuD" which means
"to be green".
It just so happens that in the case of the adjective "prosperous", English
also has a form that follows the Klingon model - the verb "to prosper".
So the Klingon verb can be translated into English either way, and both
forms are listed in the dictionary.
Regardless, however, of whether you choose to express the concept in
English as "I prosper" or "I am prosperous", the Klingon is the
same: "jIchep".
--
marqoS <[email protected]>