[Tlhingan-hol] ulesses Ha'DIbaH

[Rohan Fenwick]

jIghItlhpu' jIH, jIjatlhpu':
> 'opben maHvaD ngugh jatlhlu', {loSben boghlaw'pu' ghaH}.
> vaj qanqu'ba' Odysseus Ha'DIbaHHey, 'ach 'e' vIlajqangchu' jIH'e'.

mujang qunnoQ, jatlh:
> before I ask about your sentences, I want to say that I admire the way
> you write ! I hope someday I will acquire similar skill..

choquvmoH! I've been learning Klingon for 15 years, so it's certainly not a fast process, but I'm sure that with persistence you will. You have an obvious passion for the language and that helps a great deal.

taH: 
> there are three questions I would like to ask you

reH yIghelrupbej!

taH:
> 1. if instead of {'opben}, one wrote {'op ben} would that be wrong ?

Not at all. This is simply a matter of style: space or no space, it's absolutely correct.

In canon we have examples where numbers sometimes are combined with a word that follows, with no space. This happens in two contexts: with number-forming elements - for instance, for "two hundred" we've seen both {cha'vatlh} (BoP) and {cha' vatlh} (MSN Newsgroup 12 December 1996) - and with words meaning "X time period ago" and "X time period from now". We have examples with spaces - e.g. {chorgh ben} (Monopoly) - and examples without - e.g. {wa'leS} and {cha'leS} (MSN Newsgroup 29 June 1997). But whether or not you do this in your own Klingon is a stylistic choice that you are free to make on your own.

taH:
> 2. in your sentence maHvaD ngugh jatlhlu', {loSben boghlaw'pu' ghaH},
> I see that you wrote (if my translation is correct) : "then/at that time
> someone said for us"

Yes, your translation is pretty close. "At that time, someone said to us" would be a better English rendition, but you understand the meaning fine.

taH:
> and then you placed what he said in {...} Can I assume, this is one of
> the ways to quote someone's words ?

Honestly, there are many conventions for representing quotes in Klingon. This is just one that can be used. Many people use angle brackets - < > - but I avoid these simply because sometimes mail clients read them as markers for an HTML tag, so the quoted speech ends up disappearing in the displayed text. Nonetheless, angle brackets are the usual convention for quoted speech in Klingon.

Personally, I favour what are called single and double "guillemets" - single ‹› and double « » - when I'm writing Klingon text. They're not available on the standard Western keyboard, though, and again sometimes don't show up properly in ASCII-based email clients.

taH:
> 3. the way I translated the following sentence :
>    {vaj qanqu'ba' Odysseus Ha'DIbaHHey, 'ach 'e' vIlajqangchu' jIH'e'.}
>    I understand it says :
>    <in that case, the apparent dog of odysseus was obviously very old,
>      however I'm perfectly willing to accept it>

Yes, that's broadly right.

taH:
>      I don't understand the use of {'e'} after the {'ach} and of the
> {-'e'} after the jIH..

Two separate questions there, so I'll treat them separately. :)

1) The simplest answer is the {-'e'} suffixed to {jIH}. This is nothing more or less than the standard emphasising function of {-'e'}. Using an explicit pronoun in a sentence provides emphasis  (TKD 5.1) - {vIlajqang} "I am willing to accept it", {vIlajqang jIH} "*I* am willing to accept it" - and adding {-'e'} provides an even stronger emphasis (TKD 3.3.5). {vIlajqang jIH'e'} could be translated as "For my part, *I* am willing to accept it".

2) The use of the {'e'} after {'ach} is a very similar use of {'e'} that you're used to in sentences like {vIleghpu' 'e' vISov} "I know that I saw her". It's just split out into two orthographic sentences: {vIleghpu'. 'e' vISov} "I saw her. I know that." So my sentence is just a variation on {qanqu'ba' Odysseus Ha'DIbaHHey 'e' vIlajqangchu'} "I am clearly willing to accept that Odysseus's dog is obviously old". I'd translate my sentence into English this way: "In that case, the apparent dog of Odysseus is obviously very old. But I am clearly willing to accept that." Does that make sense?

QeS 'utlh
 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol/attachments/20151227/8551d118/attachment.html>