[Tlhingan-hol] swimming Teddy-bears in Klingon

[David Trimboli]

From: Adm qe'San [mailto:qeSan at btinternet.com]
> I felt fairly much the same as you when I started on this project and it's
> template.  I got around the mindset by taking the stance that for Klingons
to
> come to Earth and understand Human words and concepts and the easiest
> way for them to understand was to translate that in a manner as close to
> Klingon ideas as possible.  So in a way making a kind of reverse
> Conversational Klingon although still "your chosen language" to Klingon.
> 
> Quote from the press release:
> ------------------------------
> Discussing his work on Talk Now! Learn Klingon, Marc says that he and
> Jonathan had to find a way of talking about "non Klingon things in terms
that
> would make sense to Klingons".
> ------------------------------

What I like about this is that it helps make Klingon that much more a living
language. One of the big problems with its simulation of a natural language
has been that *it never changes.* Slang remains constant forever, new
technologies and ideas are never named. But here we have a window onto what
Klingons have been discovering about Earth cultures. Most of the things
named in the program are not found in the Empire, or not native to it, so we
don't get a native Klingon word for it; we get the phrase Klingons have been
calling it. That is, Klingons have settled into calling these things by
certain phrases, and so they've become recognized standards. If you or I
made up one of these phrases, they'd be "hindsight words"; but coming from
Okrand in this context we know them to be recognized by Klingons, and so we
can all recognize them too.

Besides, last week the thought of translating "I ate a cheeseburger and
fries while riding the train to Norway, but I got a Coke stain on my tie"
could send any of us into a coma. DaHjaj qay'be'!

-- 
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/