[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Hey

[Lieven]

Am 22.04.2016 um 18:01 schrieb mayqel qunenoS:
> the {qatlh DISaH} means "why should we care about them", right ?
> so, why the jay' ghe'tor is the translation given as "why should I
> care" ? whyyyy ?

Calm down. You should (and surely will one day) get used to the fact 
that on the one hand, you can never translate to klingon literally, and 
on the other hand english translations of Klingon do not always fit word 
to word.

Sometimes, the english must be changed to sound "natural".

Compare
{bortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay'}
"Revenge is a dish best served cold."
BUT literally
"As soon as an indefinite subject serves cold revenge, the dish is 
always very good."  :-/

With most of those translations, it's often the way that an english 
speakers asks a simple question, and then a klingon translator think 
"Hm... I have no word for that, but I can use the other one." But when 
you translate the klingon bakc literally, the english would sound awkward.

KCD producer once explained about how the Warriors anthem was written:

"The literal translation is always skewed a bit, so if you send him 
[Marc Okrand] 'Row, row, row your boat,' you'll get back 'Propel, 
propel, propel your craft.'"

I'm sure you know similar examples between english and greek as well.

-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
Grammarian of the KLI
http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher
http://www.klingonwiki.net