tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 04 10:51:24 2011

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Re: tato'eba' yImuv 'ej mu'tlheghmey tImugh!

Andrà MÃller ([email protected]) 

I understand your point of course. I see Klingon as a language with a very
rigid syllable structure (CV(C)(C)), which makes it difficult to import new
words just as is. We also know Klingons use a different writing system
(however it might work), so in my eyes Klingon is a bit similar to languages
like Thai or Korean maybe.
But of course things like {chay'na} are completely arbitrary... I could've
written {chayna} or {chayna'} or of course something like {junggho}.
In the Klingon Wikipedia (now on Wikia) we left foreign names as they were
but italicized them. That's not an option for Tatoeba, though. Marking them
like "China"-vo' "Japan"-Daq jIlengpu' is ugly in such cases too.

Do you think it's better to leave them just like they are and write, e.g.
China-vo' Japan-Daq jIlengpu' (or maybe without the hyphens?)? If there's
something like consensus about this, I'd be willing to change the sentences
with proper names to a new format.

Still I hope I won't stay the only contributor.
- André

2011/2/4 MorphemeAddict <[email protected]>

> I think it's better not to translate place (or other) names. Instead of
> {chay'na}, use {China}, for example, since the spelling is fairly
> consistent
> across natlangs, but the pronunciation varies radically.
> lay'tel SIvten
>
> On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 5:27 AM, André Müller <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> > Hello fellow Klingonists,
> > There's a website out there called Tatoeba (Japanese for "for example"),
> > which collects example sentences in any language which then are
> translated
> > by visitors of the site into any other language. You might first think:
> > "What is this crap used for?!", so read its purposes on the website
> itself.
> > I mainly contribute for the joy of translating random phrases. Some time
> > ago
> > I requested the Klingon language to be added and I've been translating
> > about
> > over 600 sentences since.
> > Here's the link: http://tatoeba.org
> >
> > The site seems to be frequented by Esperantists, so why not try to make
> it
> > a
> > source of (non-canon) example sentences for Klingon, too? Of course, you
> > can
> > also add canon-sentences with their original English translation or add
> > translations in any other language you know (some here speak German,
> Dutch
> > and Swedish, I know).
> >
> > Some notes (so we might stay consistent): I've never dared to translate
> > country names (except for "United Kingdom", for which we have a jocular,
> > yet
> > canon source), but I transcribed proper names of people and cities (Nancy
> >
> > nenSIy; Paris > perIS, as I assume Klingons would know Terran place names
> > through DIvI' Hol). I used ! and ? at the end of imperative and
> > interrogative sentences and «...» as/for quotes. Oh, and always translate
> > directly from the source sentences. Don't translate from Japanese if you
> > only understand it's English translation. ;)
> >
> > I think, all translations are by me, so far. I believe my Klingon is
> quite
> > grammatically correct (I hope this doesn't sound arrogant), although
> you've
> > probably never seen me post anything in Klingon here. But please indicate
> > corrections or comments below the sentences.
> >
> > I'd be happy to see more Klingon sentences added by you over time! :)
> >
> > chay'na Sep qunmIng vengvo' SavanneS,
> > - André
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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