[Tlhingan-hol] Bad Klingon in Trek novels (and the like)

[Felix Malmenbeck]

Aye, I've seen it ... and it is rather unfortunate that due to this, even the exact sentence "The Bible has been translated into Klingon, the alien language used in Star Trek." gets 2080 hits on Google (and it's also out there in numeorus other forms).

However, in Joel's defense, he is a serious klingonist ( http://mrklingo.freeshell.org/aol/JPKlingon/trans.html ), and he's always very upfront about his MrKlingon translations:

>From the Amazon page: "[...] actually a relexification of the World English Bible [...] it is not a grammatical Klingon text (actually it is more of a pidgin-Klingon, mixing English vocabulary and grammar with Klingon)"

>From the KLV website: "The UTA project uses a pretty simpleminded translation process [...] It is useful for for entertainment value, not linguistic purity. [...] Since the translation table used is rigid (one English word to one Klingon word) there are often laughable confusions."

>From MrKlingon: http://mrklingo.freeshell.org/aol/jpklingon/uta/theory.html#wrong ("The UTA program does not - CANNOT translate.")


So, it definitely is a significant example of bad Klingon, and I'll agree it's a bit annoying when it's taken as a proper translation; I wouldn't call it an insult, but I can see where that remark is coming from.
However, he is very honest about it, so I would advise you against hating him; criticize the project all you want, but the man behind it seems like a perfectly nice individual and a good klingonist.

[I should point out that the author of "Star Trek: Cast No Shadow" is probably a perfectly nice person, too ... but not a very good klingonist ;) ]

________________________________________
From: Lieven Litaer [lieven.litaer at web.de]
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 08:55
To: tlhingan-hol at stodi.digitalkingdom.org
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Bad Klingon in Trek novels (and the like)

Am 04.08.2012 21:16, schrieb Felix Malmenbeck:
> This has got to be my favorite example of bad Klingon; it's in a
> published work, and it actually makes a fuss about how the Klingon it
> presents is "flawless".
>
> How about you? Got any gems to share with us?

That's your favorite? Really?
You apparently haven't seen this:
"The Klingon Language Version of the World English Bible Psalms"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UHVIOC/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1EK381MPF1N4JG03ES57&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

It is available at amazon's kindle shop and it is completely translated
by comupter software. It's complete bullshit! It's a shame for the
entire Klingon fandom and should be legally forbidden by the KLI.

I do not know Joel Anderson in person and do not want to insult him, but
I hate him for publishing this crap. It's making fun of the effort all
klingonists on the world have done during the past thirty years. It's
also his "effort" creating other bad translations with his mr.klingon
website, by the way.

Sorry to be so harsh on him, but just check it out yourself.

Lieven.

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