tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Sep 04 22:16:37 1996

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Re: Star Trek Communicator (was Re: KLBC question)

mujang qarghan HoD:
>I corrected a few of the phrases you posted based on the actual text in the magazine 
>(uh, I do have issue #104 of the Star Trek Communicator by the way).  I am not sure if 
>my correction are acceptable Klingon or not, I just call it as I see it.
>
>The font used on the cover of the magazine is different that the font used
>inside the magazine.  For the record, it actually reads as follows:
>
>	   tlhIngan jabbl'ID le' = Special Klingon Issue
>	 	        ^		
>>         QumwI' = Communicator          Qumwl' = Communicator
>              ^
>>         De' naw'wI' = Data Access          De' naw'wl' = Data Access
>                   ^

No surprises here (I should have mentioned I corrected a few obvious typos
before posting). We've gotten used to seeing typographical errors in
magazine and newspaper articles about Klingon and the work of the KLI. For
some reason, typesetters (if that's still the correct term nowadays) and
copy editors seem unable to resist the impulse to replace an uppercase "I" 
with a lowercase "l" in the middle of words. Assuming, of course, they can
even see the difference. (On my screen I was only able to see your
coorections with athe aid of a magnifying glass. In fact, due to the font
I'm forced to use when reading my email, there is only one pixel
difference between "l" and "I"!) The mixed upper and lower case letters of
tlhIngan Hol thoroughly confuses editors who routinely capitalize the
first words of sentences, quotations in dialog, and proper nouns (e.g.
ships' names) according to the conventions of English (or French, Spanish,
etc.). 

>> During the follow-up discussion on the list, someone (again, I don't know
>> who) posted that s/he had mentioned the transcription of the actor's names
>> with Okrand himself at some convention, remarking, "Whoever did this must
>> be very familiar with the language."  Okrand chuckled at this, and
>> stated that HE was responsible for the text.
>
>Indeed, on Page 3 of "Star Trek Communicator #104" it says...
>"A special thanks to Marc Okrand for his Klingon translations."

maj.  I thought I recognized Marc Okrand's style when I first saw these. 
{tlhIngan jabbI'ID le'} is correct, which I wouldn't have expected if some
media hack had just picked up a copy of TKD and thumbed through it.  Also,
I particulary like Okrand's rendering of "holodeck". Instead of obsessing
over how to translate a "hologram" and worrying about the absence of words
for "image" or "picture", he re-thought just what a holodeck does:
{tojbogh pa'} = a room that deceives or tricks you! Only the creator is
fully at home with the language to be able to freely play with it and
create Trekkish terms to order. After all, anything he does is, be
definition, correct and is canon--a luxury the rest of us don't have! 

>Any other Q's about that particular issue that I might help with??

Since you ask... could you page through it and see if there is any 
tlhIngan Hol phrases I might have missed, perhaps within the body of the 
articles?  We might as well extract every scrap we can. 

Also, how is the magazine as a whole? Is it worth buying a back issue 
from the publisher? (I collect Klingon fanzines.) Feel free to respond 
off-list.

qatlho'bej 'ej Qapla'!

-- Voragh

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