tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 03 14:56:38 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: That banner on the screen...
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: That banner on the screen...
- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 17:56:07 -0400
96-10-02 22:53:23 EDT, jatlh David Wood:
> Marc Paige <[email protected]> offered this brilliant insight:
> > One last side note... I caught DS9 on video from last week
> > and at the end of Gowron's message, there was Klingon letters
> > on screen. I tired to match it up but it seemed like nonsense
> > to me. Anyone else try?
>
> If it's the episode you're thinking, and the scene you're thinking, and
the
> display you're thinking, then I think I know, and the story is not pretty.
>
> You know how Paramount uses a Star Fleet emblem and a banner that reads
"END
> TRANSMISSION" at the ends of their communications?
>
> Well, I can't be perfectly sure, but if you were to take a Klingon font
and
> type
> the words END TRANSMISSION, depending on what font you were using, you
would
> probably come up with the banner you saw. The telltale is the pattern of
> repeated letters. You have it on video, so you can play back to that
point.
> I
> only saw it for a moment, and I couldn't consciously read it, but my Inner
> Cryptographer's jaw hit the floor.
When I read this, I became interested for a moment. I took a look. I'll
tell you what letters are there.
ng-a-gh l-v-w-w-n-w-l-a-H-H
I'm fairly certain that those {w}'s are not {e}'s (they're so similar!).
Hmmm . . . That's quite an interesting first word they've got there . . .
As you can see, the second word cannot simply be the word "transmission"
mapped into a Klingon alphabet. However, notice that you could make
{jabbI'ID} because of the first set of repeated letters (being the third and
fourth of the second word). And the first word is three letters long. Ripe
for either "end" or {mev}. {mev jabbI'ID} sounds so tantalizing, let's see
what this different mapping might give us.
We can get as far as {mev jabbI-}, and then three next letters, which we have
just mapped, must be {-bje-}. {mev jabbIbje-} doesn't have much
plausibility. Maybe whoever created this particular set of lettering wasn't
trying to use Klingon.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any second word that could work, either in
Klingon or in English. Can anyone come up with a ten letter word with the
third, fourth, and sixth letters being the same?
I also remembered the message sent by Brigadier Kerla in Star Trek VI. The
KLI mapping is:
n-w l-H-l-r-a-w-w-v
I must admit, I haven't got any idea what this is supposed to represent.
I'd suggest to you what I've always understood: that Mike Okuda (or whoever
is doing Klingon lettering nowadays) just uses existing letters (originally
created for Star Trek: The Motion Picture) however he pleases, without regard
the language.
Also, for those of you who bought the Star Trek: Klingon CD-rom, take a look
at the back of the box (you *kept* it, right?). There is a picture of a
Klingon computer display (it actually looks like a Federation sickbay (23rd
Century) diagnostic display. There are quite a number of "words" on it. Of
course, Federation computers don't use words; they only use numbers. (Have
you ever noticed? A starship display has a number in one corner, a number
next to each bar graph display, a number next to each graphic, but you almost
*never* see words to explain these numbers!) Maybe these Klingon characters
are numbers!
Here's the KLI mapping of the word across the bottom of the display (it's the
one that appears the most important):
gh-H-H-w-l-ng-a-l-H-w-v
Although note that the second {l} is ever so slightly different from the
first one (the top is not horizontal). Personally, I don't see any sense in
it. I doubt there is any.
> "PARAMOUNT FIRES HALF ITS MONKEYS; HAMLET SCRIPT FURTHER DELAYED."
Hee hee . . . that's funny. I'm sure this is the point, but: how would
firing half of an infinite number of monkeys make a difference?
SuStel
Stardate 96758.1