tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 08 18:28:39 2001
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Speculations on Klingon Dialogue in new ST series
- From: Robyn Stewart <[email protected]>
- Subject: Speculations on Klingon Dialogue in new ST series
- Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 16:22:54 -0700
wa'Hu' ram Hov leng much chu' vIlegh. Daj. ropyaHDaq Seyqu'mo' tlhIngan
QoghIj tlhop, Dapna' jatlh 'e' boHar'a'? qoj tlhIngan Hol lulo'Ha'mo'
qonwI' Dap 'oH'a'?
naDev ngachlu' 'e' vIpIH. 'ach jatlhbe' HochHom. United StatesDaq wej
muchlu''a'? DejDI' qachmeyvetlh choH muchmey 'e' vISov, 'ach taH'a'?
toH, Dap neH jatlhchugh tlhIngan, Dal. DuH 'ach Dal. ghu' Daj vIqel
vIneHmo', Qum neH tlhIngan 'e' vIqel. mu'meyDaj qIpmoH ropDaj, qonwI'
tlhIb joq, 'a chaq DIyajlaH.
maDo' -- QoylaHbe'wI'pu'vaD mu'mey ghItlhlu'. Marc Paige jabbI'ID
vI'olbe'pu', 'ach vIlo'.
/tlhIngan-Hol/2001/October/msg00012.html
ropyaHDaq /pung ghap HoS/ jach tlhIngan. qatlh? vIttlhegh 'oHba'. chaq
yIntagh legh, vaj DIvI' pung tlhoj. yIntagh muS. Hegh maS. vaj luHoH
chaH, vIttlhegh lo'. "tuchoqchugh Supuj, HIHoH, peHoS"
/DujDaj Hegh/ jatlh. 'Iv Duj qel? Hegh 'Iv? yotlhDaq vulchoHpu'
tlhIngan, vaj HeghDaj'e' qelbe'law'. latlh vIttlhegh
qel. <DujDaj HubtaHvIS Hegh 'e' tul Hoch tlhIngan> vaj <DujDaj ...
Hegh>. Hegh poQ.
"Tell him we're taking him home" jatlh Archer. mugh 'e' nID mughwI' tlhIb.
/tlhIngan Hoch juH/ jatlh. chay' mu'tlheghvetlh lIng? "Klingon all
home". Maybe she is using"all" to signal a desire for
completion. "Klingon (i.e. you) all home". Compare to "baby all
better!" Given the little she knows of Klingon, it would make more sense
for her to take the one useful word she has, /juH/ and use a bit of sign
language. Say "juH". Point at the Klingon, make a motion indicating
scooping up and then conveying along. Say "juH" again. check for
comprehension. But she didn't do that. Is she going for "to the Klingon
home" or is she using "Klingon" instead of "you" because she has trouble
memorizing the prefix grid? :-) Or perhaps Klaang was originally going to
say the complete proverb and the Hoch tlhIngan from there got tacked onto
the word juH to giver her more to say. yaj'a' tlhIngan?
jangDI' jatlh /tujpa'qul Dun?/ mughlaw' Hoshi, "he wants to know who we
are." Honestly, I don't think Hoshi has a clue what any of the aliens she
encounters is saying. She's making it up. Seems a reasonable guess as to
what someone who had just woken up in a strange sickbay might say. Doesn't
have anything to do with what he DID say, but hey. "before the wonderful
fire is hot"? /tujpa' qul/ is from TKW. tujpa' qul pub SuvwI' 'Iw. If
you know no Klingon grammar and just look at the translation, you might
extract: "a warrior's blood". Now that's relevant, given the episode
ending. Dun meaning "great" can be extracted from /ta'mey Dun bommey
Dun/. Klaang is asking a question. Maybe he's supposed to be asking if
the blood (i.e. the message in his blood) is good.
When Hoshi says /Qu'ghewmey Enterprise. puqloD/ she's answering the
question she made up: "who are you?" So what is the answer? "We are the
crew of the Enterprise" ? "Mission bugs Enterprise son" makes little
sense, so what has she found? I think the poor writer gave up on the task
of finding relevant words in TKW and just grabbed a few. Qu' from /Qu'
DataghDI' 'aqtu' mellota' je tIqaw/, ghewmey from /ghewmey tISuqQo'/ and
puqloD from /wa' jaj 'etlh 'uchchoHlaH tlhIngan puqloD; jajvetlh loDnen moj/.
I don't think the word nentay is in TKW. I'd like to interpret the
/nentay/ comment as the beginning of an objection to being called puqloD by
Hoshi. lupHom: Hoshi misunderstands it as lupDujHom, or is he saying "an
instant".
Her translation of "destroyed" could easily be an overgeneralization, not
realizing that SonchIy refers to a specific death ritual, not the death or
destruction of anything. But that might communicate the idea, if he
really is asking about his ship. The equivalent of answering "hari kiri"
or "armageddon" in English. It ain't there no more, okay?
The theme, and the actual task of creating communication out of a very
small vocabulary and grammar really intrigues me, that's what brought me to
tlhIngan Hol. I hope they develop it in interesting ways, rather than
having the linguist hesitantly spout the appropriate alien noises every episode.