Re: Privacy and Translating Sev Trek 2
Saul Epstein 
Fri, 19 Jun 1998 13:26:36 -0500

Quotes from: Rob Zook <rzook*informix,com>
Date: Friday, June 19, 1998 11:46 AM


>So here are a coulple we could us in translating the SevTrek 2
>quotations, with attitudinals concerning vulcan privacy:
>
>Gaudy: Beta, can I ask you a personal question?
>Beta: Of course, Gaudy.
>Gaudy: Are you IBM compatible?
>
>Beta-'a     qia                     gio
>Beta-[voc], [requesting permission] [privacy]
>
>qa th'-nidroi jidokh-ti
>?  I  -ask   question-[instrumentive?]
>
>"Beta, may I ask a question that may broach your privacy?"


Unfortunately, this reads more like, "Do I ask?" than "May I ask?" The
ZC includes an infix for a permissive mood, but I doubt there's room
for it among the proposed revisions.

We might do well to pull the question out of the statement altogether,
and shoot for something like, "If permitted, I will ask an invasive
question."

jia'ek       inveisiv th'nidroi
permitted-if invasive I-question

This might literally mean either "If permitted, I invasively ask," or
"If permitted, my question [is] invasive."

>gaudi-'a    jia         -'ah*
>Guady-[voc] [permissive]-[affirmative]
>
>s  -'nidroi
>you-ask
>
>"Guady, you may ask (with no guarentee I'll answer)"

The response could be the same.

>ih,bu,mu.                   qa s' -izgezu
>[IBM letter pronunciations] ?  you-[compatable]
>"(are) you IBM compatable?"

I'd suggest <qa s'izgezu ibumu'ti>, literally, "(Is it so, that) you
[are] compatible with IBM?" (Though I'd like at some point to split
the associative sense of "with" away from the instrumental sense.)

--
from Saul Epstein
locus*planetkc,com
www,jccc,net/~sepstein
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