tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 15 08:34:06 2007

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Dilbert Comic in Klingon for February 9, 2007

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



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






Back to archive top level