tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Dec 01 18:25:13 2007

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Re: Chuck

Robyn Stewart ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

>Early in the show, Chuck's nemesis says:
>
>tlhIngan Hol DajatlhlaH. [He said it as if it were a question.]

Interesting that naQun's brain appended the -'a' without realizing it 
in his transcription. It was a yes/no question. It must have had an -'a'. :-)

>to which Chuck answers:
>
>HIja'. bIpIvqa'law'.

Presumably last he saw the nemesis, the individual had been recently 
thwarted. I was thinking it was a pretty nice use of suffixes for a 
TV show, but then I realized it is most likely supposed to be 
bIpIvHa'law' - "you look terrible" straight out of the appendix, 
complete with pronunciation bi-piv-KHA-low, making the two 
possibilities indistinguishable in the mouths of the unschooled.

Context doesn't even help, because if someone is covered in bruises 
and stitches but able to walk, "you appear to have recovered" and 
"you don't look well" are both reasonable statements.

>Later in the show, the nemesis says:
>
>ghaj'a' yIvbeH? HIja'? ghobe'? [Note: he totally blew the
>pronunciation of {yIvbeH} and I guess he was clipping his Klingon,
>since there was no prefix on {ghaj}. His {yIvbeH} sounded like "dweb".]

Now this is one that has to have the no' Hol treatment ... when he 
said "does the tunic have it" he is not mangling his word order but 
rather omitting the object yoD: yoD ghaj'a' yIvbeHlIj - does your 
tunic have a shield? i.e. Are you wearing a bulletproof vest.  Being 
partners, they can understand each other despite terrible Klingon, I 
mean despite the omission of a word here and there.


>Chuck replies:
>
>HIja'.
>
>He repeats {HIja'} a few seconds later, then breaks to English.
>
>They didn't get glottal stops or pronounce their {H}s very well, but
>for normal actors not coached by Okrand, this was good stuff.
>
>Doq
>
>On Dec 1, 2007, at 7:22 PM, naHQun wrote:
>
> > According to My Mother, this week's episode of "Chuck" on NBC
> > contained spoken Klingon.
> > I'm about to watch it on-line, and those who missed it (or don't live
> > in the US) can watch it as well at:
> >
> > http://www.nbc.com/Chuck/
> >
> > I'll of course post anything relavent after I'm done.
> >
> > ~naHQun
> >
> > --
> > http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=508314975
> > http://www.myspace.com/naHQun
> > http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/purpleelaphants/
> >
> > Modern playwrights have become obsessed with writing human
> > interpretations of alien theatrical works while ignoring completely
> > our own unique cultural heritage.~Bashir; "The Die is Cast" (DS9)
> >
> >

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