[Tlhingan-hol] Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country Klingon Dialogue

Fri Oct 9 13:11:18 PDT 2015

In addition to replying to Qov, considering myself part of an appropriate audience to respond to her request, I’m providing this as an example of how much farther than “I am human,” a speaker of Klingon can go with a few years practice. Yes, focus on the easy stuff now, but know that the language is not limited to the easy stuff in the long run. With practice, you can go this far and farther.

Maybe you’ll find some piece of this useful in the future when you want to say something like one of the sentences or phrases, or maybe it will open your curiosity about some quirk in Klingon grammar. Whatever, I hope it is useful to someone.

chu’wI’ jIHbe’, ‘ach jIHDaq loghqammey’’e' Hop  tlhIngan ja’chuqlaHghach. 

pIj vIqawlaHbe’mo' paqDaq tlhIngan mu’mey vISuqnIS. jIjaqmeH mu’mey vIQulQo’DI’ pIj jIQagh; jIbachHa’. QIn vIqonDI’ vIlabpa’ pIj jIQaghHa’meH ‘op mu’tlheghmey vIqonHa’nIS ‘ej vIqonnISqa’.

tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaw’meH QIt vIghItlaHchu’ ‘ach jIjatlhlaHchu’be’ neH. 

pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv

For the Klingon impaired (and I recommend that you actually try to read the Klingon version before skipping down here):

I’m not a beginner, but I am light years from Klingon conversation. [Note that {jIHDaq} is optional. If you don’t give some other locative reference for {Hop}, the rules of deixis in Klingon suggest that you are talking about things that are distant from the speaker.]

Often I must find Klingon words in a book because I don’t remember them. When, in order to be bold, I refuse to research words, I often err; I misfire [another way to say, “I make a mistake” in Klingon]. When I record a message, before I send it, I often need to erase sentences and rerecord them in order to fix mistakes.

I can slowly write in perfect Klingon in order to appear to be able to speak it, but I can only speak it imperfectly. [My pronunciation is pretty good, but my quick grasp of vocabulary is disgraceful.)

And in English only:

I say all this, being probably one of the first six people in the world who could write intelligible Klingon sentences of moderate complexity. I should be farther along in my conversational skills than I am, but that would have required a life I didn’t quite lead. I’m probably exceptional enough for my writing skill, and I should be content with that.

I pretty much have to be, not likely to start leading that life I didn’t lead earlier. And I don’t really want to try to say everything in these two last paragraphs in English. That would be remarkably challenging, given that much of it is “vague, wittering, and indecisive” (after all these years, it’s still my favorite phrase to describe the contrast between English and Klingon language — kudos to the guy who said that first, so long ago).

> On Oct 9, 2015, at 3:24 PM, Robyn Stewart <robyn at flyingstart.ca> wrote:
> 
> maj. (well done)
> 
> The “you” equivalent of jIH is SoH. SoH means “you” or “you are” just the way jIH means “I” or “I am”.
> 
> So to continue our conversation, I could agree with you, and say “Human SoH.”
> 
> But stating the obvious to make idle conversation would not be a very Klingon thing to do.  Instead I’ll insult you and say Ha’DIbaH SoH, which means “You are a cur,” and would be quite Klingon.  Insult me back, and then we’ll progress to another conversational tactic. 
> 
> (Other spectators who think they are light years from Klingon conversation are welcome to join in).
>  
> - Qov
>  
> From: HoD qunnoQ [mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com] 
> Sent: October 9, 2015 11:20
> To: Robyn Stewart
> Cc: tlhIngan Hol mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country Klingon Dialogue
>  
> Human jIH  
> 
> (I picked an easy one..)
> 
> qunnoQ
>  
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 7:50 PM, Robyn Stewart <robyn at flyingstart.ca <mailto:robyn at flyingstart.ca>> wrote:
> Not really.  You’re within wa’ netlh qelI’qam (~20,000 km) of every Klingon speaker there is, and thanks to the internet you can communicate with all of us within microseconds. It takes very little Klingon to have a conversation, and once you have that first conversation, you will have established a beachhead from which to conquer the language.
>  
> Here’s the first thing I taught the beginners at qep’a’: how to say “I am a ____”.  It is “____ jIH.”
> 
> jIH  is a member of the chuvmey class of words. It acts as the prounoun “I” and also means “I am.”
> 
> tlhIngan jIH = I am a Klingon
> ‘orwI’ jIH = I am a pilot
> tera’ngan jIH = I am an Earther
> 
> Look up a word (has to be a noun) that you are, and tell me you are that.
> 
> Instead of looking at the Klingon language as a massive challenge you have to be someone special to meet, or psyche yourself up to begin, just learn one thing at a time until qaSta’! You have learned it.
>  
> - Qov
> 
> From: HoD qunnoQ [mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com <mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>] 
> Sent: October 9, 2015 4:43
> To: Robyn Stewart
> Cc: tlhIngan Hol mailing list
> 
> Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country Klingon Dialogue
>  
> >Regardless, I will be delighted to converse with you in intelligibly-spoken Klingon, no matter what your spit range might be.
> 
> I would be delighted too,but unfortunately i'm light years away from being able to actually converse with someone in Klingon..
> 
> qunnoQ
>  
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 1:16 AM, Robyn Stewart <robyn at flyingstart.ca <mailto:robyn at flyingstart.ca>> wrote:
> Different languages _are_ spoken in different ways. Klingon does have to be spoken somewhat forcefully to distinguish between some of the raspy consonants. The rhythm of Italian helps to distinguish between doubled and single consonants.  Russian declarative sentences are said with a kind of monotone, falling off at the end.  If I were to speak Russian fluently and with the peppy little rises and falls of my native language, it wouldn’t sound right.  I’m still weirded out by the instruction that it is incorrect to speak Cree with emotion in my voice, that the old western stereotype of the Indian guide saying “all my family die” in the same flat tone as “soon will rain” is based in truth. I had a Korean student who knew English quite well, with reasonable pronunciation but was really hard to understand because he used the rhythm of his own language. When I tried to get him to put longer pauses in so an examiner could understand, he protested that he didn’t want to sound stupid.  This was before YouTube, so I had to get him to take my word for it that great speeches in English show that its skilled speakers SLOW DOWN to sound smart.
> Speaking Klingon with the fluent rhythm of English is probably as wrong as speaking it with the rhythm of Italian or Japanese. The ‘native’ Klingon speakers we hear tend to speak in a staccato manner, yet Azetbur manages to do it without overly chewing the scenery. Perhaps it’s because of her gender, or is an affectation. Regardless, I will be delighted to converse with you in intelligibly-spoken Klingon, no matter what your spit range might be.
>  
> - Qov
>  
> From: HoD qunnoQ [mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com <mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>] 
> Sent: October 8, 2015 13:06
> To: Lieven
> Cc: tlhingan-hol at stodi.digitalkingdom.org <mailto:tlhingan-hol at stodi.digitalkingdom.org>
> Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country Klingon Dialogue
>  
> indeed.. if i ever managed to become proficient in Klingon,so as to speak it like i speak my native language,then this is the way i would like to speak it ; mildly and relaxed. i don't know why,but this manner of speaking appeals to me as more instinctive and natural.
> 
> qunnoQ
>  
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 9:46 PM, Lieven <levinius at gmx.de <mailto:levinius at gmx.de>> wrote:
> Am 08.10.2015 um 17:54 schrieb HoD qunnoQ:
> nuqneH
> 
> i made this observation...
> 
> That's a very good observation, and it's more important than what most people would believe it to be.
> 
> Indeed, I guess it's simply the actor who speaks a bit differently than others. Perhabs it was even done intentional, because Azetbur was sad?
> Maybe it's because she's a woman. I don't know, compare to Valkris or Uhura (although she's not klingon, so maybe she doesn't count)
> 
> Anyhow, I love showing this scene to my students because it makes clear that one can speak klingon in a very natural way, as opposed to what many people believe is that you need to shout and bark klingon all the time.
> 
> Klingon can be spoken like a natural language, and Azetbur has proven this quite well in that scene.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka Quvar valer 'utlh
> Grammarian of the KLI
> http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher <http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher>
> http://www.klingonwiki.net <http://www.klingonwiki.net/>
> 
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