[578] in tlhIngan-Hol
mu' vInej
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 16 12:22:14 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
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Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mark <mark@dragonsys.COM>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 93 09:41:32 EST
naDev ghatlhbogh d'Armond:
> tlhIngan mu' vInej. "beer" parHa' jupwIj. "chechwI'" vIchup.
> nuq DaQub? vI'oghbe'.
(I will write in English to be sure I'm understood... and to be sure
I understand myself! I am nowhere near Capt. Krankor's level of fluency!)
"jupwIj" would be insulting, because the possessive ending is in the form
used for non-language-using things. You probably mean "jupwI'". (p.25)
"chechwI'" is good, but it's very general, meaning 'drunk-maker,
intoxicant'. And Klingon already has a word of similar meaning, HIq,
translated 'liquor'. [Ooooh. As in "*hic*"??!] If Klingons don't have
beer, they might borrow the word for it along with the item (which I suspect
they would consider a mild drink, barely intoxicating, around the strength
of ginger ale). Certainly many Terran languages -- the only ones whose
history we're familiar with -- borrow words along with referents. If we
follow that track, I suggest NOT using the English word, since Federation
space includes speakers of very many human languages. There's Spanish
"cerveza" > ?ServeS, Polish "piwo" > ?pIyvo, and Mandarin "pi1 jiu3" >
?pIyju, among others. (The prefixed question mark is to show the uncertain
status of these words as Klingon. I'm leaving out lots of familiar
languages whose words for "beer" are related to the English; the Mandarin
may be a loan, but it looks different enough to satisfy my esthetic scruple
against importing English words wholesale.)
> DaHjaj HolQed chu' vIHev. muSeyqu'.
DaSeytaHjaj.
- marqem
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : mark@dragonsys.com
