[Tlhingan-hol] ramDaq jIQongbe’

[Steven Boozer]

Gaerfindel:
>> This was a difficult tranlattion.recasting:
>>
>> {ramDaq jIQongbe’ jItlhuHlaHtaHchugh.  SuS jo’meH
>>  vIlo’ jIQongtaHvIS. bIq vInobnIS 'ej Hoch jajmey
>>  vIpuchnIS Qapbogh.}
>>
>> SKI: I use a CPAP machine.

ghunchu'wI':
> "I do not sleep at the nighttime if I am being able to breathe.
> I use a wind machinery-bridge [?] while I am sleeping. I must
> give it a [water??] and all days I must [toilet?] it, that succeeds."
>
> {ram} isn't usually a place, so {ramDaq} is strange. I don't 
> recognize the verbs {jo'} or {puch}, or the word {bIq}. {Qapbogh}
> is missing a head noun. What I can make out doesn't give me
> much context to figure out more. 

I wasn't quite sure what this meant either, but since you want feedback here's a couple of thoughts on the first sentence...

TKD 27:  [{-Daq}] indicates that something is happening (or has happened or will happen) in the vicinity of the noun to which it is attached. It is normally translated by an English preposition: to, in, at, on. The exact translation is determined by the meaning of the whole sentence.

We use "in, at, on" for many different things in English but Klingon {-Daq} just refers to physical location.  As a rule-of-thumb, if you can't touch it or it's not a place, don't use {-Daq}; try to recast with a verb.  In the case of nighttime, we do have an example from TKD:

  qaStaHvIS wa' ram loS SaD Hugh SIjlaH qetbogh loD 
  4,000 throats may be cut in one night by a running man.

Another option is to use a time stamp:  {Hoch ram} "each night" or {Hoch rammey} "every night, all nights".  If you want to refer to a specific night say {DaHjaj ram} "tonight", {wa'Hu' ram} "last night", etc.  If this has been going on for a while you can say {Hoghvam Hoch ram(mey)} "each (every) night this week", etc.

Instead of {jItlhuHlaHtaHchugh} "if I am able to keep breathing" -- I imagine you left out a {-be'} and meant "if I am UNable to keep breathing" -- try using {-Ha'}:  *{tlhuHHa'} "mis-breathe, breathe wrongly":

  qaStaHvIS ram jItlhuHHa'taH.
  At night I have trouble breathing.
  ("while the night occurs I continually misbreathe")


The next sentence will have to wait until my next coffee-break, but in the meantime here's a quick review of breath-related verbs:

HQ 12.4:  Air, for example, comes into and out of the nose or mouth. The word for breath is {tlhuH}, and that for breathe is also {tlhuH}. To breathe in, or inhale, is {pur}; to breathe out, or exhale, is {rech}. To breathe noisily, or wheeze, is {jev}. (This is also the verb "storm", though Maltz couldn't decide whether this was meaningful or just a coincidence.) To breathe even more noisily, or snore, is {wuD}.

Cf. also {Hob} yawn, {ruq} belch, {tlhov} wheeze (not sure how this differs from {jev}), {chuy} sneeze, {SuS} "blow (into wind instrument) to produce sound".


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons