tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 09 08:10:58 2006

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Re: KLBC: Translating Dilbert

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



pm5:
> >Boss: "A business magazine is sending a reporter to interview me."
> >pIn:  {muyu'meH wa' ja'wI' mughoStaH.}

ter'eS BG:
>A lot of the business buzz words in "Dilbert" are just not going to have 
>Klingon equivalents (as in "business magazine" and "best practices").

I'm not sure I would class "business magazine" as a buzz word as it seems 
fairly descriptive.  Using {QonoS} "journal, log" - which many Klingonists 
use for magazine, newspaper, etc. (indeed, the KLI's own online journal is 
called {Qo'noS QonoS} "The Kronos Chronicle" 
[</QQ/>/QQ/]) - we can translate it 
easily as *{malja' QonoS}.  See {malja' per} "trademark" (lit. "business 
label") for a similar example.

>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 altogether. You might want to find some less 
>slangy texts to translate, or just write your own things.

Well, these could be fun if you're willing to "Klingonize" the business 
jargon.  Or should I say:  restore it to the "original Klingon"?  We know 
Klingons do indeed do business; in fact, "Power Klingon" opens with a 
tutorial on the proper way of doing so.  After following the narrator's 
advise, the Terran earned the Klingon merchant's {Suy} highest compliment: 
{batlh malja' DaHuq} "You transact business honorably".



--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons






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