[1720] in tlhIngan-Hol
nuqneH cha'Dich
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Oct 18 10:13:01 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com>
From: BELDAR@orange.cc.utexas.edu
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 00:45:12 -0500 (CDT)
X-Envelope-To: tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com
X-Vms-To: IN%"tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com"
Greetings again...and apologys for the cutoff. I will continue...
The comment about the proper way to say "I disagree with you" triggered a sort
brainstorm in which I began to ask: would the Klingons, at their Council
meetings or a strategic conference, say that AT ALL?
The concept I am dancing around is IDIOM. Not the slang that any society will
have in its vocabulary (give me five! So ein Mist!), but the constructions that
most languages use to express actions--such as, "we're having a picnic."
Translate this literally to a Mexican, and he will laugh in your face--because,
as he would explain to you, people don't have picnics, but they DO picnics
(Vamos a hacer un .....) Tell a German (in German) that "I have my birthday on.
.", and he will assume an amused expression on his face, and tell you that
you need to say "I have birthday on" without the possessive (Ich habe
Geburstag..) But try that little phrase on an Oxford graduate, and he will
assume that he is having a conversation with a Neanderthal.
Klingon idiom, although to me a complete unknown, might be a wonderful thing
to speculate on. Granted the verb "disagree" exists in Standard tlhIngan;
but I can't help but wonder if Klingons might voice it differently in real
life. For example...
lughbe' mu'mey 'e' viQub. I THINK YOU ARE WRONG.
lughbe' 'e' viQub. I THINK YOUR WORDS ARE WRONG.
(Pardon me, reverse those English translations....)
Or, knowing the Klingon mindset, how about...
lughbe' SoH. YOU ARE WRONG.
Now, I am PAINFULLY aware that what "you are wrong" conveys is NOT what "I dis-
agree with you" means. But, playing the devil's advocate, perhaps the Klingons
don't like to use the verb "disagree" with prepoostional phrases, and preferre
d
an alternate construction (just like the Romans preferred ut...ne clause to a
slew of other possible constructions in Latin). Who knows? The Master Gate-
keeper of tlhIngan, Mr. Okrand, perhaps; but he has so far not taken up the
finer point of Klingons and their syntactical habits. What I believe exist for
the time being is a wide range of conjectural constructions for what the
populace of Kronos "really" speaks...and there are some doozies possible,
especially with all of those nifty verbal affixes.
In closing, I would like to thank anyone who has read this far for staying
with what to some must sound like confused ranting; if so, then credit it
to someone exploding his pentup thoughts to people that would actually care
(believe me, most of my friends don't). I will shortly begin to attempt-
ATTEMPT- to write tlhIngan for your combined consideration and, on my off
days, for your amusement. I will close with a bit of wisdom I learned on
a treadmill....
Dat bIjaH, pa' SoH.
Jonathan Sir Hendrey
University of Texas (Austin)
October 18, 1993
