Cthulhu42 wrote...
but I did finally find out what "Keelah se'lai" means, which was cool.
*Spoiler-ish*
About that, because I love puzzles, and languages, after finding out (Also from the script.) What the phrase means, I sat down to pick it a part. So just for fun, here it goes;
Tali says Keelah se'lai means "By the homeworld I hope to see someday." Now obviously there are too few words in the original phrase for the translation to be completely accurate, but then we remember that Tali says its the "Best," translation she can find; which implies that its the translation that still basically says the same thing, but it also conveys more of the nuance and emotion behind the actual meaning.
A popular thing to do in many fictional languages (That use the western alphabet anyway.) is to use apostrophes to indicate a conjugation, and as we see from this, se'lai is prabably a conjugated verb.
Mostly due to the fact that I am Japanese, the first thing I thought of was our "Tai," verb ending, which means that you want to do the verb its conjugated with, and we see fron the translation above that they "Want to see," their homeworld. So I'm thinking that se'lai means "Want to see," with "Se," being the root of the world "To see/look," and "Lai," being that "To want," Conjugation.
Like I said earlier, there are only two words in "Keelah se'lai," which means, judging from Tali's translation, that the Quarian language is prone to noun-dropping. and definately doesn't have articles, much like Japanese, so the words "Someday," and even the word "By," are not actually there, but implied by the nuance and emotion that I spoke of earlier.
So with the verb recognized, and the non-essential words dealt with, the only world left is "Keelah," which more than likely means "Homeworld," due to the fact that there aren't any other words in the sentence.
But why would we here Tali, and other quarians, randomly say "Homeworld," when expressing surprise or sadness? I think its due to what a homeworld means to them; its become such a valued, almost abstract idea that its probably assumed the role that most other cultures would give to a god, or to a creed. So in the end, saying "Homeworld," to a quarian could be the same as saying "Oh god," or something similar.
So in the end, I think the literal translation of "Keelah se'lai" is really "The homeworld i want to see," but due to the context, the translation Tali gives really is the "Best," one there is.
*End of spoiler-ish.*
Modifié par BentOrgy, 01 janvier 2012 - 11:50 .
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