[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: lIng

[lojmIttI'wI'nuv]

While {Qapla’meywIj Hoch vIta’ta’’} does look more unusual than {Hoch Qapla’meywIj vIta’ta’}, I can see that he wants to point to the compilation of his accomplishments, not to the accomplishments themselves. He’s not talking about accomplishing all his successes. He’s talking about accomplishing Success.

It’s also interesting that the English translation lacks the clarity of suggestion that the speaker was willing to break his word of honor in order to succeed, which is pretty clear in the Klingon. The English could easily suggest that “my word of honor and the help of my friends or political connections, or my wealth, or my large group of weapons and thugs have carried me this far.” Basically, his word of honor was not enough to bring about his successes. He needed something else. 

The Klingon more clearly suggests that following the rules would have spoiled much of his success.

The really interesting thing here is that he has created an irrealis, which is a grammatical construction we’ve been told that Klingon doesn’t have. If X, then Y. Do you believe that? "If I honorably follow the rules when I promise, then I have accomplished the all of my successes. Do you believe that?”

In other words, “Do you believe that had I kept my word of honor I would have been as successful as I have been?”

Very clever use of Klingon grammar and vocabulary to say several things we have no direct way of expressing. We don’t have an equivalent to “word of honor”. We don’t have an irrealis. But that wasn’t an obstacle for Okrand. He conveyed the meaning, anyway. Bravo!

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Feb 2, 2016, at 11:10 AM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 
> On 2/2/2016 9:43 AM, Steven Boozer wrote:
> 
>> muptaHvIS tay''eghmoH QeHDaj Hoch
>> All his rage focussed in one blow  PB
> 
> Ah, this one adds to my list of supporting canon.
> 
>> jIlay'DI' reH batlh jIpabchugh Qapla'meywIj Hoch vIta'ta' 'e'
>> DaHar'a'
>> Did you think that my word of honor would have carried me this far?
>> PB
> 
> I wonder why this isn't {Hoch Qapla'meywIj vIta'ta'}?
> 
> -- 
> SuStel
> http://trimboli.name
> 
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