tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 23 09:28:05 2007
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Re: Dilbert Comic in Klingon for February 10, 2007
- From: Doq <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dilbert Comic in Klingon for February 10, 2007
- Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 12:27:52 -0500
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Something I missed earlier:
>> For sentence (2) how would you tranlate "for example"? I
>> rephrased it
>> to {mu'tlheghvam vItu'} "I found this sentence" but I'd prefer
>> something closer to the original.
>>
>> pm5
I've heard people say that when speaking Japanese, they toss in a lot
of very polite phrasings that are more related to the cultural
context than the actual message. We do this in English, too, though
because it is the way we talk, we don't notice it. How many times
have you started a phone conversation or had someone else start it
with, "I was just calling to ask you..." That would drive a Klingon
nuts. Just spit it out.
In the first place, we put it in the past tense, just to distance
ourselves from admitting that right now, this very instant, we are,
in fact, calling. It's not really accurate to say, "I was just
calling you..." It would be more accurate to say, "I'm calling you."
Notice how stupid this sounds. How would a Klingon respond to this?
"OF COURSE YOU ARE CALLING ME! I KNOW THAT! YOU KNOW THAT! WE ARE NOW
TALKING ON THE PHONE BECAUSE YOU CALLED ME! SO WHY ARE YOU SAYING
THIS? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING? ARE YOU TRYING TO DISTRACT ME SO THAT YOUR
ACCOMPLICE CAN SNEAK UP BEHIND ME AND STAB ME IN THE BACK? I SHOULD
KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"
But we can't stop ourselves from saying it. It is important for us to
be indirect in order to be polite. It's like, "Please, would you mind
handing me a napkin?" Say that to a Klingon and you might get
punched. It's so indirect and evasive. How could you trust someone
who talks like that?
"For example" is one of those polite phrases that doesn't really
exist in Klingon. Just give the example. It's like the word "please".
Notice that it is absent from the Klingon vocabulary. It's not a
simple omission because Maltz didn't remember to include it on the
word list he provided. The word isn't there. The culture doesn't
support the concept. You can't translate "please" into Klingon any
more than you can translate "photon torpedo" into Latin.
If you can strip out any indirect or polite phrases from a sentence
and still convey the meaning into Klingon, then do so. The life you
save may be your own.
Doq