tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 03 13:09:40 1996

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

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

ST5 Transcript: (was Re: KLBC: lut)

I hate not being able to find things. I have moved since I 
transcribed the movie and I can find ST1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. I hated 
5 anyway, but I was willing to watch it again, just to get a 
better grip on this transcription. But I can't.

On Tue, 3 Dec 1996 11:34:42 -0800 Steven Boozer 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> >> There are a couple examples, I think.  The one I remember is from Star
> Trek V: 
> >> {HIvHe yIchoHmoH!} "Alter the attack course!"  
> >
> >I heard that whole line as the single word {yIghoSchoH!} Were we 
> >watching the same movie? I transcribed this from my own 
> >videotape and I'm pretty sure this is correct. No {HIv} as noun. 
> >No {choH} as verb.

So, voragh, why no comment? Which transcription do you agree 
with?

> >> Of course, this sentence gets 
> >> into my belief that Okrand was using {HIv} as a noun (it's used again
> this way 
> >> in what I believe is {chorghSaD qelI'qam HIv chuq'e' vInoH} "Estimating
> attack 
> >> range in 8,000 kellicams").  
> >
> >I heard that as:
> >
> >maHIvmeH chorghSaD qelIqam 'oH chuq vInoH.
...
> >> SuStel
> >
> >charghwI'
> 
> You really didn't think I could stay out of a discussion about canon, did you?
> 
> As it happens, last month I retranscribed all the Klingon I could from ST3,
> ST5 and ST6 from my own copies of the tapes. This was something I have been
> wanting to do for some time now as I've noticed there seems to be some
> variation among the various "transcriptions" of the movies cited on this
> list. I listened to each line several times trying to determine exactly what
> the actors are trying to say--as opposed to what we think they should be
> saying based on the subtitles.

So, you have a psychic VCR, do you. It can actually tell you 
what the actors are trying to say, whether they manage to say it 
or not, regardless of backgound music and noise. Very 
interesting. I'll have to save up for one of THOSE.
 
> Anyway, here is my freshly rendered version of that scene in ST5. The
> subtitles are in quotes, and <angle brackets> indicate problematic or
> inaudible lines (Klaa is quite soft spoken for a Klingon):
> 
> Vixis: chorghSaD qelI'qam HIvchuq'e' vInoH
>
>        "Estimating attack range in 8,000 kellicams."

So, two of you heard the same thing and I heard something 
different. This does not bode well for charghwI'. I'd still like 
to have someone listen to it WHILE READING MY VERSION. If you 
then say I'm definitely wrong, I'll accept it.

> Klaa:  HoS <bIrIHbeH>, cha'maH vagh vatlhvI' Hong QIt yIghoS      (?!?)
>        <HoSbe' rebegh>,   "     "      "      "    "    "       (heard)
>        "Stealth approach, slow to one quarter impulse power."

I didn't understand this line at all. I didn't even try to 
transcribe it.
 
> I didn't hear Vixis say "maHIvmeH..." either.

Then again, you probably weren't listening for it at the time. 
These lines ARE difficult to parse. They are not clearly stated 
and there's all that music and noise in the background. I know I 
listened to that line in particular a LOT of times without 
making any sense of it before coming up with what I wrote, and I 
can tell you, {maHIvmeH} is not clearly or strongly pronounced. 
It was just a weird syllable cluster at the beginning I kept 
ignoring until it made sense, or so I remember it.

Meanwhile, the {-'e'} doesn't make any sense there.

> "HIvchuq" may be two words.

Strange that I didn't hear a syllable as prominant as {HIv} with 
an English translation which suggests it so strongly. Sometimes 
it is easier to listen with examples of possibilities in front 
of you than it is to listen really hard and try to come up with 
something fresh. I wish I had it to listen to now. I don't.

> Does anyone have a better idea for what the mumbled line subtitled "Stealth
> approach" is?

I gave up on it. I didn't write down ANYTHING for that line 
because I could not understand any of it.
 
> Klaa:  yISo'rup
>        "Prepare to cloak."

I noted that as {ghoSo'beH.} Now, if you were to ask me to 
translate "Prepare to cloak", I would say, {yISo'rup}. I don't 
think I would have transcribed {ghoSo'beH} unless what I heard 
was distinctly different from the expected {yISo'rup}. This is 
one of those things which makes me distrust parts of your 
transcription, since you are writing what one might logically 
expect one to say, rather than perhaps what was actually said. I 
listened to every line many times to try as best I could to get 
it right. I am less sure than you that I got every line right, 
but I suspect you should be less sure than me that YOU got it 
right. Your apparent confidence is not reassuring.

In fact, I'm sure I made the same mistake I just accused you of 
in other lines. I'm sure I wrote down what I felt SHOULD have 
been said, even though perhaps I was simply misunderstanding 
what they WERE saying.

Parsing this stuff is hard. At times, it is impossible. I admit 
that. You don't seem to, but perhaps I am just being extreme in 
my defense. This is new?

>        So'wI' yIchu'
>        "Engage cloaking device."

We actually agree on one!
 
> Klaa:  qerq
>        "Kirk."
>        DujHomDaq ghaHtaH

I heard:
lupDujHomDaq ghaH.

>        "He's on the shuttlecraft!"
>        HIvHe yIchoHmoH
>        "Alter the attack course!"

yIghoSchoH.
 
> "HIvHe" may be two words (we really need to see Okrand's notes or a script).
> Note "DujHom" and not "lupDujHom". (It's perfectly clear in context, but it
> could be the actor's error or a truncated line.)
> 
> Klaa:  yISo'Ha'rup yIghuS
>        "Stand by to de-cloak for firing."

bachmeH yISo'Ha'rup.

Maybe we have different editions? A director's cut or something? 
Or maybe this is an example of me writing what I thought he 
should have said instead of what he said?
 
> Klaa:  'entepray' yIghoS
>        "Bear on Enterprise."

'entepray'Daq.

> Vixis: 'entepray' 'oH DoS'e'
>        "Enterprise targeted!"

While yours is more grammatically correct, I heard:
'entepray' 'oH DoS.
        
> Klaa:  jIbaH
>        "Firing!"

I heard him say, {yIbaH} and I thought the subtitle was "Fire!"

> Klaa:  HeDaj yIqIm
>        "Track her course!"

HeDaj yIghoch.
 
> Klaa:  po'qu'
>        "He's good."

I think you are correct, though I heard a gibberish {poghuH}
 
> This is a good opportunity for us to thrash out an agreed upon transcript
> for our arguments from canon. (Short of anyone actually getting a copy of
> the shooting scripts for the movies, that is, which I understand can now be
> purchased. Does anyone out there have copies of these scripts?) The group
> effort at puzzling out that untranslated scene at the beginning of Power
> Klingon was quite productive and shows the advantage of several sets of ears
> and points of view--not to mention different sound systems playing the same
> tape (I don't have a stereo VCR).

I bought one such script and they simply left out all the 
Klingon. It is not there. Just the English subtitles. Big wup.

I suspect that each of us got parts right the other got wrong. 
We went through this with the audiotapes and I found that it 
really helped to have other people's guesses in front of me when 
I listened again. There were passages that I could have sworn 
were one way, but when I had the other person's suggestion in 
front of me and I listened again, the other person was obviously 
right.

Meanwhile, that same other person was obviously wrong in other 
sections. We never all totally agreed, but we got most of it 
covered at a higher degree of acuracy than any one of us could 
ever have done alone.
 
> Voragh

charghwI'

Back to archive top level