tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 06 08:54:17 2011
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Re: country names (was Re: tato'eba' ...)
It gets me that the least experienced speakers are rarely content to translate simple, meaningful sentences for their own use. More commonly, they want to publish something for the whole world to represent the rest of us (whether we like this or not) and it's almost always poetry or large piles of transliterated words not in our 2800 or so word vocabulary with the expansion provided by the affixes.
I wish I had the time to do what these people shun. It's like it is beneath them to actually participate in what the language does well. They disrespect what ghunchu'wI' has done beautifully for the last couple weeks, which is to speak Klingon well to describe something clearly to people who have never witnessed what he is describing, yet thanks to his obvious skill, others who know the language can have an accurate mental image of the devices and events and people that he is describing.
THIS is how I'd like us represented to the world. If we have a legacy, it should be that we have a functional language and we have proven its functionality over and over. Not that we can add to a pile of translations of things someone else wrote. Not that we can write impenetrable "poetry" that makes most of us wince or roll our eyes. That we can write and speak our own little jewel of a language.
Note that I recognize the translation of Shakespeare's sonnets and the verse portions of Hamlet are brilliant exceptions to my general aversion to Klingon poetry. Translations of stories are generally more valuable than translations of random sentences because the story line forces the speaker to face challenges otherwise simple to dodge in order to effectively tell the story in a way that holds together.
The story is a larger unit of meaning. Beyond word, phrase, sentence, paragraph or chapter is the story. You want to represent us to history, making your mark on the history of this community? Tell us stories (true or fictional) in our little jewel of a language.
That is the highest challenge.
lojmit tI'wI' nuv
Sent from my iPod
On Feb 6, 2011, at 4:47 AM, Lieven Litaer <[email protected]> wrote:
> we have discussed many times about transcribing or translating country
> names and agreed not to do so.
>
> First, the problem is that every language prounounces a name different,
> like french *parIy* or english *perIS*.
>
> second: if you want to "translate" a name (not only countries') into
> Klingon, first think about how would you translate it into english? My
> standard question for my students: What's "Pizza" in German? :-)
>
> third, if you try to translate its meaning - how can you be sure that
> every one knows and understands this meaning? Many people in Europe
> don't even know what USA stands for... or would you accept {ngangwI' Hol
> Sep} for "Germany"?
>
> jIlengtaHvIS, GermanyDaq jIleng. pa' Pizza vISop 'ej Cola vItlhutlh.
> vIyajlu'bej 'ej moHbe' HolwIj.
>
> Qapla'
> Lieven.
>
> PS: please "like" this:
> The qepHom is now on Facebook!
> http://www.facebook.com/qepHom
>
>
>
>