Re: ENT "Marauders" (spoilers)

[Steven Boozer <sboozer@midway.uchicago.edu>]

Thomas West asks:

>>Any opinions on the tlhIngan-Hol spoken in last nights episode of 
>>"Enterprise"?

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Holtej:
>You mean, other than {veQ}?  There were some words here or there that made 
>sense to me.  At one point, when the Klingons were hunting around for the 
>miners and saw one running away, the leader yelled {pa'!}.  That was 
>pretty cool.  But mostly, it didn't sound intelligible to me.

DloraH:
 >The leader did say /HIjol/ to be beamed up.  But that's a phrase Paramount
 >already knew from using it before.

Indeed.  When I first heard it I (1) was impressed that one of the writers 
actually conjugated a verb; 2) mentally corrected it to {ghojol} "Beam *us* 
up!"; then (3) was disappointed upon remembering that {HIjol} was given in 
the "List of Useful Expressions" appendix in TKD and realizing that the 
writers hadn't actually conjugated a verb after all.

 >and of course the popular /cha/ was in there.

As well as *p'tok*, which was uttered two or three times. <g>

 >Were there any closed captions for anything?

Yup.  I thought someone might ask, so I wrote them down:

   KOROK:  Tu'chaH!  HI-qem chaH!  Dah!

I imagine this is supposed to be:  "Find them! Bring me them! Now!"

   KOROK:  pa'chaH So'!

"There they hide!"

   KOROK:  il-Qot lam parHa' Oosh!  They're hiding in the dirt like Targ.

"___ lie dirt like ___!"  (Something is wrong with this caption!)

   KOROK:  Gorat-kA!

???  (From context, this is something like "After them! Get them!")

   KOROK:  Net joj!  HIv chaH qagh!  muH HoH toch!

"That [pronoun!] area-between!  Attack them *gakh* (?)!  Execute, kill, 
palm (of hand)!"

Although /toch/ was in the captions, this was probably a typo by the 
captionist for {Hoch}, making that last bit:  "Execute [them], kill everyone!"

Sigh.  Another example of the Paramount 
look-up-the-words-and-plug-them-into-English-word-order school of 
"translating".  Still, they are using the Dictionary instead of just making 
up wholesale gibberish.  I'm always amazed that no writer has ever been 
curious enough to read the first half of TKD, where the grammar is 
explained.  As grammars go, it's pretty simple actually.

The ENTERPRISE writers are far more attentive to Trek on-screen canon, 
however.  T'Pol correctly explains the use of bat'leth and mek'leth as well 
as the Klingon preference for using bladed weapons in hand-to-hand combat, 
even when disruptors are available.  (I wonder:  Is this from personal 
experience or did she just look it up in the 900-odd page Vulcan database 
on Klingon culture which was mentioned in a previous episode?)  In a nice 
little reference to TOS "The Trouble With Tribbles", Korok insults the 
miners before he leaves:  "We can find deuterium anywhere.  Yours isn't fit 
for a garbage scow!"



-- 
Steven L. Boozer
Cataloging Department, University of Chicago Library
s-boozer@uchicago.edu                 (773) 702-8726