[tlhIngan Hol] «jIH je» and variations

De'vID de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com
Mon Nov 21 00:36:33 PST 2022


On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 3:53 PM SuStel via tlhIngan-Hol <
tlhingan-hol at lists.kli.org> wrote:

> On 11/20/2022 12:22 AM, zrajm via tlhIngan-Hol wrote:
>
> So, what do you think? Is «je jIH» better than «jIH je»? And what are you
> arguments for your belief? – Or should the phrase be avoided altogether and
> expressed some other way? How?
>
> {jIH je} strikes me as an Anglicism: an attempt to import a common English
expression into Klingon by direct translation.

It might happen to work in some situations, like:

Person 1: tlhIngan jIH.
Person 2: [tlhIngan] jIH je.

I would see a response like the above as an elision of the word {tlhIngan}
based on context.

However, I don't think it works in a situation like this:

Person 1: jIDoy'.
Person 2: jIH je.*

{je jIH} strikes me as just wrong.

> In my opinion, the Klingon equivalent to *me too* is to repeat the verb
> in the first person and add a *je.* For example:
>
> Klingon 1: *romuluSnganpu' vImuS!* *I hate Romulans!*
> Klingon 2: *vImuS je!* *Me too!*
>
> Klingon 1: *SIbI' ruchbe'chugh chaH, jImej.*
> * If they don't get on with it right now, I'm leaving. *Klingon 2: *jImej
> je!* *Me too!*
>
That's also my perception. This is partly informed by the joke from Power
Klingon:

'avwI'vaD jatlh qama'; jIghung.
jang 'avwI'; jIghung je.
jatlh qama'; jI'oj.
jang 'avwI'; jI'oj je.
jatlh qama'; jIDoy'qu'.
jatlh 'avwI'; jIDoy'be'.

-- 
De'vID
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