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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/19/2018 5:56 AM, mayqel qunenoS
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAP7F2c+K1Nw28zcJLDK0KNkxeFiW8SGALh_HpAM0izKU8hGrUA@mail.gmail.com">I
was thinking the {tlhIngan maH; taHjaj}, and I don't think that it
captures adequately the intended "feeling" of the original "remain
klingon".
<div dir="auto"><br>
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<div dir="auto">The english "remain klingon", doesn't express a
wish; it doesn't mean to say "may we remain klingon". It is an
imperative.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>The sentence is in the imperative mood, but it is clearly an
expression of a desired state. Here's another example:</p>
<p><i>Buy or die!</i></p>
<p>In English, these are two imperatives. But Klingon is happy to
ignore the imperative and present this as a conditional:</p>
<p><b>bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh</b></p>
<p>Klingon does not have a grammatical subjunctive of the
hypothetical, so it uses conditionals combined with indicative
mood. If it did, if there were a verb suffix <b>-foo</b> that
meant hypothetical subjunctive, then you could say <b>bIje'be'chugh
vaj bIHeghfoo,</b> and it would work perfectly.</p>
<p>And that's what you've got with <b>tlhIngan maH; taHjaj:</b> an
imperative in English becomes a subjunctive in Klingon. <b>-jaj</b>
produces a subjunctive mood with a <i>wish</i> or <i>may </i>meaning.</p>
<p>Why not translate this as an imperative? Why not translate <i>Buy
or die</i> as an imperative? Stylistic choice, most likely.
There's no reason why the phrase couldn't have been <b>yIje' pagh
yIHegh;</b> we know you can conjoin imperatives like this. I
find Qov's <b>tlhIngan maH; taHjaj</b> more suitable to a slogan
than any of your suggestions, purely on the basis of sounding
good.<br>
</p>
<p>All this goes to show that translating concepts and sounds may be
more important in some contexts than reproducing grammatical
features like mood.<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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