[662] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: nuqneH cha'DIch / More questions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 23 03:07:11 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
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Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: Captain Krankor <krankor@codex.prds.cdx.mot.com>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 01:31:58 -0400
ghItlhmey tIqqu' legh 'e' neH 'aj DIwgh. jIH je. vay' Satlhobpu', 'ach
mujang pagh. jabbI'IDwIj Sopta''a' labwI'? chaq, pIj qaS. vaj vItlhobqa':
nuq 'oH "movie"'e' DamaSbogh? (any movie, not just strek)
qatlh DaparHa'?
--HoD Qanqor
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Regarding the good Admiral's post:
First off, since nachHegh seems interested in doing corrections, I'll throw
this one at him. There definitely are some things to be fixed, so go to it,
nachHegh! And kudos to the admiral himself for continuing to jump in and do
Klingon.
Tossing the correction over to nachHegh is simply a way of getting people
involved. If anybody else is interested at trying their hand at corrections,
send me mail (krankor@codex.com).
I will, however, try to answer the questions:
1) "again" is done with the verb suffix -qa'. "another" is done with the noun
latlh. "still" is usually done with the verb suffix -taH.
2) I would do "letters with interesting grammar" as:
pab Daj ghajbogh ghItlhmey'e'
3) You cannot use -jaj and -meH together, nor are you likely to want to. To
get the meaning you wanted, yes, you would use -laH. Remember, -jaj does not
mean "may", per se, that it, it does not have a one-to-one mapping with this
English word. It expresses a wish that something happen. It does not mean
"may" in the sense of permission or ability or possibility ("Well, I may do tha
t,
but I'll probably do the other thing"). Only in the sense of a wish that
something happen, as in "may your blood scream". Sentences with -jaj need not
even be translated using "may". Consider
qajatlhjaj, Human "I would speak to you, Human"
(this example is actually how I first learned about -jaj, before the new dict
was even out yet)
It could even be something like:
DaH maSopjaj "Let's eat now."
Don't fall into the trap of assigning an English word as the meaning for a
Klingon suffix; usually suffixes correspond more to concepts than words.
4) The issue of "to be" with a non-pronoun subject is dealt with on page 68
in the middle. "If "Qapla'" is not a closing, then what is it?" would be:
"closing" 'oHbe'chugh "Qapla'"'e', vaj nuq 'oH?
By the way, my answer to that is that it is not a closing per se, it is a
specific wish. That is, when a Klingon closes a conversation by saying
Qapla', he is explicitly wishing success to the person, on whatever mission
or task they were talking about. It is *not* just a conversational pleasantry
or tidbit of politeness. More akin to, say, an officer, when sending someone
off on a mission, ending the conversation with "Good luck." He really means
to wish the soldier luck, it's not just a meaningless closing like "goodbye".
Admittedly, we've seen people on Nextrek using it in contexts that make it
seem more like a meaningless pleasantry, but I would argue (someone can
show me wrong (they usually do {{:-) that it is generally the terrans,
Picard in particular, who use Qapla' with a certain amount of abandon.
Of course, I would not be the least surprised to learn that this is in fact
the normal process by which a closing is generated: It starts out as a
meaningful statement, comes into vogue and becomes widespread and popular, unti
l
at last, the original meaning is lost or obscured. For instance, I believe
it is the case (someone will correct me if I'm in error) that "goodbye" is
a corruption/compaction/whatever of "God be with you".
So I guess I'm saying that Qapla' is not at that stage of meaninglessness yet
(nuqneH *is*), though it may well be on the road to it.
Sigh. I hate it when I set out to write Klingon and the English ends up taking
over the whole posting.
--Krankor
