tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 15 08:34:06 2007
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Re: Dilbert Comic in Klingon for February 9, 2007
At 09:28 AM Wednesday 2/14/2007, pm5 wrote:
> 'aSoq: {wa' nem malja'vaD ngoQmeywIj vIqonpu'.}
> Asok: "I wrote out my goals for the coming year."
{wa' nem} means "one year from now. As a time-stamp (as you've used it)
this sentence means
One year from now, I will have composed my goals for (the) business.
IOW you haven't composed them yet, but one year from now you will have done so.
We don't have any examples of {nem}, but we do have information about it's
antonym {ben} "years ago":
cha'vatlh ben HIq vItlhutlh
I will drink Two Century Old Ale. PK
vagh SanID ben buDbe' wamwI'pu'.
5,000 years ago, hunters were not lazy. (st.k 11/99)
The word {ben} can be used to mean "years old", but in Klingon, one doesn't
say "I am X years old". The phrase {loSmaH ben jIH}, if anything, would mean
"40-year-old me" or the like. It would parallel {cha'vatlh ben HIq} "Two
Century Old Wine". "I am 40 years old" would be expressed as:
loSmaH ben jIboghpu'
This is "I was born 40 years ago". As is normal in Klingon sentences, the
time element (in this case, {loSmaH ben} "40 years ago") comes first.
(st.k 12/12/96)
With longer time periods, such as a century ({vatlh DIS poH}) [...] the
words
{ret} ["period of time ago"] or {pIq} ["period of time from now"] may be
used
in place of {poH}, e.g., {cha' vatlh DIS poH} "two centuries", but {cha'
vatlh
DIS ret} "two centuries ago". The phrase {cha' vatlh ben} would mean
"200 years
ago". The choice of construction depends on what is being emphasized: in
this
case, the total number of centuries (two) or the total number of years
(200).
(HolQeD 8.3)
Using {cha'vatlh ben HIq} and {loSmaH ben jIH} as models for a noun-noun
phrase, I would suggest a slight change:
wa' nem ngoQmeywIj vIqonpu'.
I wrote out my goals for the coming year.
("I have composed my one-year-from-now goals.")
I realize that this sentence is ambiguous and might also be understood as
One year from now, I will have composed my goals.
I'll have composed my goals a year from now.
I imagine the difference would be in the phrasing: {wa'-nem-ngoQmeywIj
[without pause as it it's one word] vIqonpu'} vs. {wa'-nem [slight pause]
ngoQmeywIj vIqonpu'}.
I've omitted {malja'vaD} because 1) it's not in the source text; and 2)
it's implied by context (Dilbert takes place in a business office). BTW,
if you mean Asok has actually written his goals out (i.e. on paper, ready
to be turned in to his boss) I would use {ghItlh} "write, mark". In
addition to {qon} "record, compose" (often used in a literary context) we
also have {gher} "compile". Okrand discussed them on startrek.klingon
(7/09/1998):
The verb usually translated "write," {ghItlh}, refers to the physical
activity
of writing (moving the pencil around, chiseling, etc.) [...]
The verb for "write" in the sense of "compose" is {qon}, literally "record."
This is used for songs and also for literary works (poems, plays, romance
novels, and so on). As has been pointed out, it's as if the song or story is
somehow out there and the "writer" comes into contact with it, extracts it
(to use Qov's nice phrase), and records it. [...] Saying {QIn qon} "he/she
composes a message" or "he/she writes a message" (literally "he/she records
a message") suggests that the writer is presenting some new information as
opposed to merely passing something along. It may also imply that the
written
message has some sort of literary merit, and thus be a compliment.
There's another verb, {gher}, which doesn't have a straightforward
equivalent
in English, but which has sometimes been translated (not entirely
satisfactorily)
as "formulate" or "compile" or "pull together." The idea seems to be that of
bringing thoughts together into some kind of reasonably coherent form so
that
they can be conveyed to someone else. Thus, one would usually say {naD
tetlh gher}
"he/she compiles the Commendation List" or "he/she writes the
Commendation List".
Of the three, I think {gher} is best for compiling or making a list of
one's goals. (I do it too at my job as part of my annual performance
evaluation. A completely useless exercise required by the University's
Office of Human Resources that neither I nor my superior take seriously.)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons