tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 25 00:02:17 2003
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re: KLBC ti'SopwI'
ja' Tree d'Eris <[email protected]>:
>Simply posting "Tree HIpong, BritainDaq juHwIj 'oH'e'" is no less dry and
>uninteresting than translating - the targ is sleeping - the ferengi has no
>head, etc ( 'though I realise the validity and importance of such exercises,
>I would like to keep them to the postal course ).
But posting that simple information is very helpful. It allows you to
discover quickly that you need to focus on a few things:
* word order - the subject of the sentence comes at the end.
* syntax - in a "to be" sentence, it is the subject which receives the
{-'e'} suffix, and the pronoun-as-be acts like a verb.
* idiom - while {Britain-Daq 'oH juHwIj'e'} is grammatically correct, you
probably meant something more like {Britain vIDab}.
>I want to communicate about the things I see and feel.
>"Klingons do not need such a word as... " doesn't satisfy my need to
>communicate, nor encourage my desire to learn.
The issue isn't one of appropriate topics. It's one of vocabulary. If you
want to talk about hang gliding, you'll just have to accept that there is
no known Klingon word for "hang glider", and trying to invent one is not
appropriate.
>I believe people use Duj to
>talk about their cars. Do Klingons have no need of cars ?
We don't know if they do or not...but we've certainly never seen one using
such a thing.
>I'm unmoved by digressions about Klingon culture...
The "culture" discussions are just by way of explaining why we shouldn't
expect there to be a simple established Klingon term for "vegan".
>After all, veganism isn't that usual on Earth.
Here's a thought -- there are a lot of people who don't know what "vegan"
means, and you won't find it in most dictionaries. You have to describe it
in English if you want to make sure people understand you. So you
shouldn't have any particular problem with having to describe it in Klingon.
-- ghunchu'wI'