tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 28 13:28:05 2007

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Re: Now and then?

McArdle ([email protected])



--- David Trimboli <[email protected]> wrote:

> Steven Boozer wrote:
> > "Voyages: now and then".
> [...]
> > What conjugation, if any, can I use here?
> 
> Given that it's not a full sentence in English, I
> wouldn't hold you to
> correct grammar in a translation. Since we don't
> know what Klingons find
> pithy or what kind of rules-breaking they'd allow
> for something pithy,
> you can simply go on your human instinct.
> 
> Changing {DaH} and {ngugh} to {DaHjaj} and {ret}
> might solve your problem:
> 
>     lengmey: DaHjaj ret je
> 

I was going to suggest {DaHjaj} and - because I had
forgotten about {ret} - either {wa'Hu'} or {ben}.  The
former if we think Klingon allows a figurative use of
{wa'Hu'} to mean "some time in the past", like the
"yesterday" in "yesterday when I was young"; the
latter otherwise.  But IMHO {ret} is better.

A direct substitution of words in the English template
doesn't seem quite right to me, I think because I read
{DaHjaj} and {ret} as nouns unless they're occupying
an adverbial position in a sentence.  If they are to
be construed this way, the tiny (and perhaps deluded)
Klingon part of my brain wants their connection with
{lengmey} to be better specified:  these are voyages
*of* yesterday and today.  Hence I'd expect the
Klingon equivalent of a genitive:  the noun-noun
construction.

    DaHjaj ret je lengmey

Does this make any sense?

-- mI'qey



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