tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 01 10:36:02 2000

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The Hallmark Bird-of-Prey commercial



Eodrakken wrote:
: jatlh Voragh:
: > BTW for the Hallmark Bird-of-Prey Christmas ornament commercial some years
: > ago Okrand came up with another way to refer to lights, {wovmoHbogh jan}:
: >    Qapqu' wovmoHbogh janHommey 
: >    It even has working lights! 
: 
: Heh, I remember seeing that.  How did the rest of the advert go?

Here's my transcript of the commercial.  (Does anybody remember in what year it
aired?)

                HALLMARK BIRD-OF-PREY ORNAMENT COMMERCIAL

Gowron: Qapla'!
         Greetings!
        pIj maSuvpu' batlh maSuvpu' 'ej maQapbejta'!
         In our many battles, we have fought with honor and
         achieved... VICTORY!
        vaj malopmeH tlhIHvaD nob SaSuqpu'.
         So to celebrate, I've gotten you all a gift.
        tlhIngan toQDujHom 'oH.
         It's a Klingon Bird-of-Prey ornament.

Warrior1: toQDujna' rurchu'!
           It looks so real!
Warrior2: Qapqu' wovmoHbogh janHommey!
           It even has working lights!
 
[The commercial switches to Federation Standard and gives the sales pitch. 
After that we see the warriors speaking to one another as they leave through
the door.] 

Warrior1: [peghmo' ... ]                                      (?!?)
           That was real nice of him.
Warrior2: HIja', [kvitch-kvatch-kvom] wISuqnIS.                (??)
           Yeah, we should get him a thank you card.

The last two lines are a complete mess.  I transcribed what I could hear, even
if it doesn't make much sense, especially WRT Warrior1's line.  Glen Proechel
once commented that, "This scene seems to follow the rule: 'If you can't
remember your lines, mumble a lot.' We can only surmise that Dr. Okrand gave
them some legitimate lines and they chose to fake it instead."

Some time later, Marc Okrand was asked about his use of {wov} in this
commercial on startrek.klingon back when it was hosted by MSN.  He replied on
6/18/97:

  "I haven't seen the commercial in a while, but I don't think {wov} was
   used as a noun there. Though the Klingons in the ad may have ad libbed
   a bit, the phrase the one Klingon was supposed to say regarding the
   little lights in the Bird of Prey ornament was {wovmoHbogh janHommey}.
   That is, 'little devices that cause (something) to be light or bright'
   or 'little devices that brighten (something)' or 'little devices that
   light (something) up' or the like. {wov} is a verb 'be light, bright'
   followed by the suffix {-moH} 'cause' (thus, 'cause to be light')."

As always, Okrand was being diplomatic when he said the other two actors "may
have ad libbed a bit".  OTOH Robert O'Reilly ("Gowron") did his usual excellent
job with his {tlhIngan Hol} lines.



-- 
Voragh                       
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons


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