tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 09 06:41:02 2006

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: KLBC: Translating Dilbert

Terrence Donnelly ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Well, at least it isn't poetry. 8+)

--- pm5 <[email protected]> wrote:
>

Thanks for including the English; it makes it
easier to critique the Klingon.
 
>     Boss: "A business magazine is sending a reporter
> to interview me."
>     pIn:  {muyu'meH wa' ja'wI' mughoStaH.}
> 
Not bad at all.  Good use of the proper prefixes.
Good job knowing that the direct object of {ghoS}
is the place (or in this case person) being
approached, so you don't need {-Daq}.

However, since {wa' ja'wI') is the subject of the
main verb, it needs to come after it: {muyu'meH
 mughoStaH wa' ja'wI'}.

>     Dilbert: "You?"
>              {qatlh?}

Why not just use {SoH} 'you'?

> 
>     Boss: "They want to know my best management
> practices."
>     pIn:  {Savu' chay' 'e' SovmeH neH.}
> 

This doesn't really work. Here's how I'd do it:
{vu'meH mIwmeywIj nIvqu' Sov luneH.} "They want to
know
my superior methods for managing."

The phrase {vu'meH mIwmeywIj nIvqu'} is a noun phrase,
so is a simple object of {Sov}, and so you don't need
{'e'}. The phrase {vu'meH mIw} 'method for managing =
management method' is made on analogy to {vutmeH
'un} 'pot for cooking = cookpot'.  There is no
word for "best" in Klingon, but {nIvqu'} has been
used in canon.

Note that {Sov} takes the {0-} 'they-them' prefix
because the object is plural ('methods'), but {luneH}
needs the prefix {lu-} 'they-it', because its
"object" is a single item, the verb {Sov}.

Note also that your attempt to render "how I manage"
doesn't work because Klingon has no relative adverbs
("how" as in "the way in which"). {chay'} just means
the question "How?", and nothing else. The only way
around this lack is to recast sentences that use
relatives in English to eliminate the need for one.

> 
>     Boss: "I don't know what that meant, but I like
> the way it sounded."
>     pIn:  {mu'tlheghvetlh vIyajbe' 'ach vI'Ij 'e'
> vItIv.}
> 

The first part is fine, but {vI'Ij 'e' vItIv} means
"I enjoy that I listen".  I'd probably use {QIch
vItIv}
"I enjoy the vocal sounds."

>     ...
>  
Not bad. You are obviously not a rank beginner; you
show some real understanding of the grammar.  My
only advice to you would be that it can be really hard
to translate things from the popular culture, since
so much doesn't directly relate.  A lot of the
business
buzz words in "Dilbert" are just not going to have
Klingon equivalents (as in "business magazine" and
"best practices").  Part of the fun of "Dilbert"
is the overuse of meaningless buzzwords.  When
you cobble together a Klingon equivalent, you lose
that sense, since it's just an ad-hoc construction
and not a buzzword, or you just have to leave them
out alltogether. You might want to find some less
slangy texts to translate, or just write your own
things.

-- ter'eS BG

Back to archive top level