tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 17 08:04:50 2005
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Re: Translation
Se'noj wrote:
>The phrase is "You're lucky you're my friend, and not some
>multinational corporation." The problem I'm having is that the only
>way I can see to do it is to have to -mo' clauses, and I'm not sure
>that its legal. Any advice?
Let's do it in parts:
jupwI' SoHmo' bIDo'.
Because you're my friend, you're lucky.
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION SoHbe'mo' bIDo'.
Because you're not a multinational corporation, you're lucky.
I take it that your problem is combining the two. Although in English we
regularly omit repetitive elements, in Klingon you have to repeat the
relevant suffix. Because each clause is very short, I see no reason why we
can't use {'ej} and some punctuation (to show the clauses are to be read
together):
jupwI' SoHmo' 'ej MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION SoHbe'mo', bIDo'.
Because you're my friend and [you're] not a multinational corporation,
you're lucky.
FYI we have a similar example of this use of {'ej} with two very short
relative clauses, both referring to the same noun in KCD:
romuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'
Romulan hunter-killer probe KCD
Now, for "multinational corporation"... We have {malja'} "business", used
twice:
batlh malja' DaHuq.
You transact business honorably. PK
Paramount Pictures malja' permey bIH Star Trek pong'e' Deghmey'e' je.
"Star Trek" and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures.
(SkyBox Copyright) [{malja' per} "trademark"]
Whether {malja'} can refer to an organization and not just the idea of
business is unknown. But since it's all we have at the moment, everyone
will understand it. Thus we can create *{malja''a'} "corporation,
syndicate, daibatsu, etc."
We have no simple word for "nation", but we do have {Sep} "region":
A specific area whose borders are definable, by whatever means,
is normally called a {Sep}, commonly translated as "region",
though, since the regions were politically distinct in the past,
"country" might have at one time been just as appropriate a trans-
lation. (KGT 16f)
An international corporation could be *{Sepmey law' malja''a'} "a
corporation of many regions". A much simpler solution, though, would be to
use {wo'} "empire", {yuQ} "planet" or {qo'} "world".
Putting everything together we have:
jupwI' SoHmo' 'ej Sepmey law' malja''a' SoHbe'mo', bIDo'.
("a multi-regional corporation")
jupwI' SoHmo' 'ej wo' malja''a' SoHbe'mo', bIDo'.
("an imperial corporation")
jupwI' SoHmo' 'ej yuQ malja''a' SoHbe'mo', bIDo'.
("a planetary corporation")
jupwI' SoHmo' 'ej qo' malja''a' SoHbe'mo', bIDo'.
("a world[-wide] corporation")
One suggestion: I think it sounds a little better in Klingon if you
reverse the order of the clauses and link them with {'ach}:
qo' malja''a' SoHbe'mo' 'ach jupwI' SoHmo', bIDo'.
Since you're not a world-wide corporation but (rather) my friend, you're
lucky.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons