[142] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: comparative/superlative adverbs?
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:17:22 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: Jeff Lee <jlee%smylex.UUCP@uhasun.hartford.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 92 20:19:19 EST
Kevin Iga (mosquito@Athena.MIT.EDU) writes:
>
> One of the "useful phrases" in the dictionary is "revenge is a dish best
> served cold." It comes out "bortaS bIr jablu'DI'reH QaQqu'nay'". After
> scratching my head for a while, the best literal translation I could get
> was: "As soon as cold revenge is always served, the dish is very good."
> (that is, assuming -reH means "always" as a verb suffix).
>
> [Dochmey vIteqta']
>
> To make it closer to the translation, I would say:
> bortaS'e' nay' QaQ law' Hoch QaQ puS bIr jablu'DI'.
>
> [Dochmey vIteqta']
>
> Comments?
Well, I too thought the translation in the Dictionary was a bit of a
kludge, but my own translation from English to Klingon was fairly close
to Okrand's (though the order was different):
bIr jablu'DI' QaQqu'bogh nay' bortaS
Which, allowing for the different word order, and assuming that QaQqu'
means best, translates back as:
Revenge [is a] dish which is best when served cold.
Then again, I got a somewhat different "literal" translation of Okrand's
phrase: "[A] dish best when served cold [is] revenge". (Perhaps he
forgot to reverse subject and object, as well as his own rule that -bogh
is mandatory for relative clauses?)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jeff Lee Deghmey'a' Deghmey He'So' DIpoQbe'
jlee@smylex.uucp - uhasun!smylex!jlee - jlee%smylex.uucp@uhasun.hartford.edu
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taH pagh taHbe' -- William Shakespeare
