yet?

[reySIr]

Hi all-

One thing i noted when i first read TKD, was that wej means "not yet".  But i can't find a translation for just "yet".  Is it acceptable to apply all normal suffixes to adverbs?  So would wejHa' or possibly wejbe' be valid for "yet"?

Actually, many notions of the future tense confuse me.  I know that klingon has no tense, but what about notions like 'eventually'?  All i can find is tugh  "slowly" but that isn't always what is meant.


-reySIr

[ter'eS]

What does 'yet' actually mean? Isn't it really close to 'already'? "Did you eat yet?" == "Did you already eat?" If so,maybe you already (heh) have your answer.

Not to criticize, but don't get so bogged down in the minutia of Klingon grammar that you never write anything. Just start writing, and try to think like a Klingon when you do. Use the resources that Klingon has, and don't just translate English sentences you've already written.  I'll bet you find you don't really need a lot of fancy expressions to get the point across.

[reySIr]

Well, my original intent in a letter i was writing was to say "Are you guys home yet?".  I was thinking: juHrajDaq tlhIH'a' for "are you at your home?" but couldn't figure out the notion of "yet".  "Already" doesn't quite work (and i can't find a direct translation for that anyways).

Ultimately, i went with juHrajDaq bolengta''a' literally meaning "did you (pl) accomplish travelling to your (pl) home?" 

And yet (heh), i was still curious about the notion of "yet", since we have a word for "not yet".

So, yeah, most of my questions come from me doing translations and writing snippets to friends.  Sorry if my last message left you with the impression otherwise.  I'll try to be more specific in my examples.


-reySIr

[tesseraktik]

Regarding adding -Ha' to any adverbial:

Whether this {-Ha'} can he added to all adverbials is not clear. The notes
taken while working with Maltz indicate that he balked at {vajHa'} ("not
thus") but accepted {Do'Ha'} "unfortunately." Information on other
adverbials has not yet been uncovered, though it is probably in the notes
somewhere.

[Source]

For "Are you guys home yet?", I'd argue DaH juHrajDaq tlhIHtaH'a' ("Are y'all at your home now?") does the job quite nicely. You can also try DaH juHrajDaq bopawta''a' ("Have y'all arrived at your home now?")
After all, the word "yet" really simply means "at that time" (ngugh), often specifically "now" (DaH). It can also be used to mark impatience, but that could be expressed separately.
juHmaj bopawta'be'. SupaSmo' jIbergh. ("You haven't arrived at our home. I'm annoyed because you're late.")

[QoghtlhIH'u']

Translating from one language to another is more of an art than an exact science. And if Klingonists like tessaraktik and ter'eS cannot translate yet the way reySIr would like it to be translated then it probably can't be done.

If you really want to translate all kinds of things in Klingon, then in my opinion you should get acquainted to the Klingon language as it is supposed to be used, that is in their habitat. Living on a desolate planet with fierce animals, travelling far and wide in spaceships encountering Terrans and other funny outer space (from their point of view) creatures, fighting with bathleths and drinking Romulan ale, acting honorably and so on.

Then, if you have a feel for the language as it is supposedly used in the Klingon world, try to translate just anything with your newly acquired Klingon mindset. Without the Klingon spirit, translation is a dry academic exercise.
If you want to learn Latin, you will probably want to know how the Roman Empire was like.