tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 25 16:57:50 2003

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Re: The Klingon Hamlet

>Recently, there has been some comments about how to
>study Klingon. One of the suggestions was to print the emails from the 
>mailing list and translating them. I could think on some problems on this 
>as how accurate are people here on writing correct grammar and spelling.

This is one of the funniest things i have ever heard.  i think the phrase is 
"sticking your neck out", yes?  Or perhaps the classic "putting your foot in 
it", heh.

>I purchased the Klingon Hamlet and I was planning to read it sometime in 
>the future when I achieve some more proficiency on Klingon. Now I'm 
>considering it as a way to learn from this very early stages. So I have to 
>ask how good is that book on the language itself? Is its
>text too difficult or is it good for beginners?

i'll answer your question with another question: Would you give Shakespeare 
to someone trying to learn English?  It all comes down to how your learn the 
easiest; Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is not exactly light reading, and i'm led to 
believe it is a good tranlation, if you know what i mean.  Personally, i 
can't stand Shakespeare, and wouldn't wish it on anyone; {ghllghameS} will 
be far more interesting, but while a rewarding read, it too may present some 
difficulties for the beginner, if what we have of the original is anything 
to go by.  Whether the translation is a satisfactory or successful one is 
sometihng i haven't heard any feedback on, but seeing as the translator is 
now the current Beginner's Grammarian.....

It hasn't been mentioned much (if at all), but i found one of the easiest 
ways to learn Latin -- in conjunction with the traditional English-to-Latin 
translation with a lexicon in one hand and Virgil, Cicero and the poems of 
Catullus in the other -- was to **deconstruct** Latin passages, sort of 
backwards-translating them.  With a language like thlIngan Hol where a large 
amount of any coherent passage is simply strings of words appended to each 
other (and yes, i know i have **really** simplified that!), deconstructing 
passages, would be a helpful method of really understanding the mechanics of 
it.

Just my 2c worth -- from probably the longest standing 'beginner' on this 
list, heh.




--DantlhIgh

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