[Tlhingan-hol] ngab wa' rep

[Lieven]

Am 30.03.2015 um 17:55 schrieb Felix Malmenbeck:
> Actually, ignore what I said; according to KGT:
>
>> The force field on a ship is called {botjan}. To shield a ship, one must "activate the shields," or {botjan chu'}.
>
> This suggests that the {botjan} does, in fact, disappear when the shields go down.
>
> It's interesting that the word for "device" appears in the word for a kind of force field.

I see no problem or confusion here, it's just - as usual - the english 
translation that's not so perfect. When you "activate shields", you 
actually activate the shield-generator, the device. It's like the stupid 
wordplay when people aks "did you make this coffee?" and you answer "no, 
I just turned on the coffee-machine".

That's maybe the point when one starts thinking in klingon instead of 
transalting words. When I read {botjan} I don't read "shields, 
forcefield on ship, KGT" but I read {botjan}.

BTW, after checking KGT again, I think that one may not read it in a way 
that {botjan} is the word for the forcefield itself. You must also 
include preceding phrases, were it is explained that terrans use the 
same words for a hand held shield and the forcefield, but klingons do 
not. They call it {botjan}. Okrand could have been clearer, telling it's 
the device, but that would have become too detailed and technical.

Now, my two cents for the losing-shield-discussion:
We know from ST6 {tlham chu'Ha'lu'} "gravity has been deactivated", so 
in a battle situation, I would translate the expression "we've lost 
shields" into {botjan chu'Ha'lu'}.

"losing" things has an idomatic use in english here. There's the other 
"lose" {luj}, the opposite of winning, and the {chIl} which has the 
addition "misplace" in TKD to make clear that it's used in the sense "I 
lost my keys".

-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher
http://www.klingonwiki.net