[2579] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: -bogh question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jan 17 13:12:35 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: Will Martin <whm2m@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 13:02:43 EST
On Jan 17, 12:08pm, rrd@ulysses.att.com wrote:
> Subject: Re: -bogh question
>
> Richard Kennaway writes:
> < Have tlhIngan-Hol members heard of the language E-prime? E-prime
consists
> < of English with all forms of the verb "to be" omitted. Try translating
> .......
>
> How does Hamlet's soliloquy come out in E-prime?? You know, "To be or
> not to be....."
>
> Just curious.
>
> Ralph DeMarco
That same problem backfired on Okrand, leaving us with the single worst
example in cannon: {taH pagh taHbe'}. (I even prefer the odd grammar
resulting from English lip movements mapped to Klingon text.) Klingon was
structured to avoid the use of "to be", and it has no infinitives. The
producers warned Okrand that they expected him to translate something from
Shakespeare, but they did not reveal the specific line until just before it
became cannon. Okrand lacked the option of explaining, "You can't say that in
Klingon." They paid his salary, so he created a verb out of a suffix,
carrying the sense of continuation and avoided any pronomial prefix,
approaching the infinitive as closely as Klingon allows. I'm surprised he
didn't use {jIHtaH pagh jIHHa''egh}. Yes, it lacks meaning, but then so does
"To be or not to be." They both require explanation.
"Should I continue living, or should I end my life? THAT *is* the
question." I have always wanted to see an actor lose it on this line in its
slightly modified form: "To be.....or NOT to be. THAT is a QUESTION?" (The
second line works best with a yiddish accent.)
The potential for comedy here screams for fulfillment.
-- charghwI'
