[2850] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Translation help!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Jan 28 11:53:35 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: Fri, 28 Jan 94 11:37:12 EST
On Jan 28, 10:12am, "Matt Gomes" wrote:
...
> I just looked at this little
> snippet and am thoroughly confused. Can someone help?
>
> >batlh choja', Matthew Whiteacre quv:
>
[Mat's guess]:
> You tell me the honor, be honored Matthew Whiteacre...
...
> -mat
You are pretty close. Basically, this is an overly polite, redundantly
saccarine statement. Consider that {quv} is used adjectivally and {batlh} is
used adverbally. I then translate this as "Your honor, the honorable Matthew
Whiteacre, tell me:" or "Honorable Matthew Whiteacre, you honorably tell me:"
While it is nice to be nice, this particular convention puts my teeth on
edge. It becomes white noise I ignore; the stuff of pretentious diplomats.
Still, YOU can rest easily that it is not YOUR fault that you have difficulty
understanding it. It does not, in a typically Klingon fashion, get to the
point of the conversation. In native Klingon, it REALLY means: "Note the name
of the person who said the following, and then ignore the rest of this
sentence."
charghwI'
