tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 15 08:06:15 2005
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Re: Klingon WOTD: jotlh (verb)
>>Klingon word: jotlh
>>Part of Speech: verb
>>Definition: take down
[email protected] writes:
> > Which meaning of "take down" is that? Is it "I took down the
> > ghojmoHwI's notes" or "I took down the tera'ngan petaQ"?
lay'tel SIvten:
>Don't know, do we?
>I've always thought it was the literal sense of moving an object from a
>higher to a lower position.
Agreed, and we have a clue: Bill Willmerdinger spoke to Okrand at BabelCon 2 :
I had added {jotlhHa'} as "put up", but Marc [Okrand] pointed out
that {-Ha'} not only negates but changes state (undoes), and that
"put back up" would be a better translation.
Note that Okrand did not quarrel with the underlying physical meaning of
moving an object from a lower to a higher position.
>Avoiding English idioms seems like a good plan.
Agreed. It's unlikely an academically trained linguist like Okrand would
ever use an idiom or slang meaning in his standard glossary
definition. (OTOH, he uses them freely as puns!)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons