[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon dialogue in STID (major spoilers)

[Rohan Fenwick]

ghItlhpu' De'vID, jatlh:
> A couple of us (Quvar, loghaD, Qov, and myself) tried to reconstruct
> the dialogue from memory and notes taken during the movie, using the
> English and German subtitles, and also the version of the same
> dialogue from the English novelisation and its German translation.

Add me to this number. :) I took a notebook with me both times I saw the movie in the cinema. The speech went by too quickly for me to get a decent go at everything (anyone developed a version of Pitman Shorthand for Klingon?) but much of what I got concurs with everyone else's; there are a few places I may be able to refine things.

> Klingon (announcement from Klingon scout ship):
> bISaqQo’[taH?]chugh vaj bIHegh. DaH ma[beh]. bISuvtaH [...] bISaqQo’...
> (untranslated, but explained by Uhura as a threat for Kirk et al's ship to land)

This was really nice Klingon, I thought. Well articulated and clearly understandable.

> The ship lands, Uhura walks towards the Klingons, and she says:
> [jIv|Dev]wI’ la[tlh|H] jIve[?].
> English sub: Who's in charge here?

Funny - the English version I saw (Australia) had "I am here to help you" as the subtitle here. I had the Klingon as [?]wI'ra' jIH'e', which seemed to correspond (despite the fact that we have no idea if {-'e'} can appear on a pronoun-as-verb like this).

> Uhura: jIyI[t|’|q].
> English sub: I am here to help you.
> German sub: Voller respekt. (= With respect.)

Again, I'm almost certain that the English corresponded with the German ("With respect") in the version I saw. Could one of the viewers of the English version have inadvertently missed a subtitle in their transcription?

I had this as {jIyI'} as well. It was one of Saldana's most clearly articulated word tokens. Unfortunately {yI'} doesn't correspond to anything we know. :/

> Uhura: [l|r]a[tlh|ch] jI[H?]vo’ na[H?] Da[H|q] pIghvamDaq So’’eghtaH.
> English sub: With respect, there is a terrorist hiding in these ruins.
> German sub: In diesen Ruinen versteckt sich ein Terrorist. (= There is
> a terrorist hiding in these ruins.)
> (The {pIghvamDaq So’’eghtaH} part was clearly spoken. I heard the word
> before it as {DaH}, and actually completely understood {DaH pIghvamDaq
> So’’eghtaH} in the theatre, but it might've been {Daq}.)

Me too, and I think {DaH pIghvamDaq So''eghtaH} is right. As for the rest, I can't really help much.

> Uhura: ‘ej Dochmey [wI?] [bIngDaq?] [mapegh?].
> English sub: He has killed many of our people.
> German sub: Er hat viele unserer Leute getötet.
> (No idea what the Klingon is supposed to be. But from this point the
> English and German subtitles are in sync.)
> 
> Klingon leader: toH, Hegh Humanpu’. qatlh DISaH?
> English sub: Why should I care about a human killing humans?

I thought this should be {qatlh jISaH} (backed up by "I" in the English sub), not {qatlh DISaH}, though of course either is grammatical.

> Uhura: potlhmo’ batlh, vIqaw[=qel?]ba’.
> English sub: Because you care about honor,
> German sub: Weil Ihnen Ehre etwas bedeutet.
> (The {potlhmo' batlh} part is clear.)

Given the English sub, and the fact that I had {jISaH} in the previous subtitle, I think {bI[qaw|qel]ba'} is more accurate. Still not sure what this verb root is, though.

> Uhura: ‘ej cheboq[meH|neH] jIvum[’e’|meH|neH].
> English sub: And this man has none.
> German sub: Dieser Mann besitzt keine.
> (I'm thinking this was {'ej cheboqmeH jIvum neH}, or something which
> was along the lines of "I'm here to help you", but the subtitles got
> shuffled around.)
> 
> Uhura: QoblI’ba’ [sounds like -bang] SoH juppu’lI’ je. [sounded more like qe]
> English sub: You and your people are in danger.
> German sub: Sie und Ihre Leute sind in Gefahr.
> (If you strain, you can get {QoblI'ba' SoH juppu'lI' je} out of it...
> by assuming that Uhura mispronounces {'} by making the vowel before it
> nasally, so it sounds almost like {ng} or {q}. But it's a bit of a
> stretch.)

{QoblI'ba'} would be ungrammatical. I think there's something else going on here.

> At this point, a fight begins, and the Klingons all shout over each
> other and weapons fire: DaH bIHegh [= batlh maHegh?] / wo’ wItoy’ /
> Qapla’ / Qu’vatlh [?]

Yep, all sounds pretty right. {DaH bIHegh} was definitely in there.

ST:ID is still playing until late tomorrow night here, so I might go and take one last poke at it with this transcript in hand, to see if any more can be wrung out of it.

QeS

 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stodi.digitalkingdom.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol/attachments/20130618/4c9c79d7/attachment.html>