tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 15 11:11:23 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

Doq ([email protected])



DaH wa'nemvaD ngoQmeywIj vIgherta'.

poH-Degh 'oHlaH mu' <<nem>>'e' 'ach DIp 'oHmo' <<nem>>,  pabvaD DIp  
motlh DalaH <<nem>> 'ej mojaq <<-vaD>> lo'laH.

Doq

On Feb 15, 2007, at 11:33 AM, Steven Boozer wrote:

> 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