#explaining klingon

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

Is there a Klingon word or phrase equivalent to "Girl's Night"? As in, a fun, sisterly/friendly bonding activity or event between women/girls/etc.

You can translate it literally as be' ram (women's night) if it's actually happening at night, or be' poH (women's time) if it's at any time, including at night

There is also the word chaj, which is glossed as "close female friend of a woman/girl", so chaj ram would be "the night of close female friends" (with chaj poH being "the time of close female friends")

(you'll have to be careful with the word chaj though, because using it to describe anyone who isn't a female friend is offensive :P)

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

Hey buddy, I've got a question

At the beginning of the DS9 episode Dramatis Personae, a Klingon ship emerges from the wormhole. It has returned a month ahead of schedule, and then promptly explodes, while a single Klingon officer begins to materialize on the transporter platform. He safely transports, but then falls dead from his wounds, his last word: "Victory!"

Except the word "victory" is the only word I actually know in Klingon: Qapla'!

So when any character dramatically says it to somebody else, it usually stays in Klingon. For some reason in this one instance it doesn't: either he's speaking English or the universal translator translated his word into English.

Why?

In-universe answer: My personal theory is that the universal translators only activate if the language being spoken is unfamiliar to the listener, for example, Chekov's universal translator won't activate upon detecting Russian, Uhura's universal translator won't activate upon detecting Swahili ect. I would imagine that every other time that a Klingon said Qapla', the surrounding characters knew what it meant and the universal translators weren't activated, but in this instance, the surrounding characters did not know what it meant, so the universal translator was activated

Out-of-universe answer: Probably because the majority of Star Trek viewers (sadly) don't know any Klingon, and the Star Trek writers wanted the majority of viewers to understand that the Klingon said "victory" rather than "random Klingon word" (which is how they would render Klingon words in their minds)

Silly answer: Because the DS9 writers didn't want Tumblr user translating-posts-into-klingon to destroy their asses if they screw up the Klingon XD

Btw, the word «Qapla'» means "success", because the word for "victory" is, and I absolutely shit you not, «yay» XD

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

You may be exactly the person I have been searching for. Can you help me translate "Per my last email" into Klingon?

QInwIj Qav DaqawlaHchugh... = If you can remember my last email...

Example: QInwIj Qav DaqawlaHchugh, «yIHoH!» vIjatlh (If you can remember my last email, I said "Kill him!")

Or just

QInwIj Qav yIqaw! = Remember my last email!

qaQaHlaHmo' jIQuch :) (happy to help!)

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

can you tell me how to say "My sister is very rude" please? i tried using a website but it seems to use the same word for every female relative and it translated back to "wife object"

Of course!

Dochqu' be'nI'wI'

Doch = Be rude -qu' = emphasis (very) be'nI' = sister -wI' = mine (used for language users)

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

Not necessarily a translation request, but I thought that maybe you could point me towards more information about the R'uustai ritual from TNG or the ritual in DS9 from 'Sons and Daughters'? I'd love any additional cultural info or translation notes on both of these scenes, but I didn't find much of anything, even on a Klingon learning site which was a bit of a letdown tbh.

I just watched through those ritual scenes in both DS9 and TNG, here are my translation notes: (warning: the Klingon in both of them is terrible 💀)

DS9:

Martok: martaq Degh, toDuj Degh, betleH Degh, meqleH Degh

[Martok's symbol, the symbol of courage, the symbol of the bat'leth, the symbol of the mek'leth]

Degh = symbol, insignia, emblem or medal

Martok + Worf: martaq Degh

[Martok's symbol]

Worf: «Alexander», vInob Daqtagh

[Alexander, I give you the D'k tahg]

This sentence is grammatically incorrect. Klingon sentences follow the order of object-verb-subject (the opposite of English sentences, which are subject-verb-object). Since the D'k tahg is the object of the sentence (because that is what's being given), the sentence should read Daqtagh vInob

Martok, Worf and Alexander: wochqa' 'Iw'a', wochqa' qorDu'

[the great blood is tall again, the family is tall again]

This is not a metaphor for anything, woch literally means "tall" as in a tall person. I somehow don't think this was the writers' intention.

Alexander: meqleH (?) Hegh

The only information that I could piece together from this sentence is that the object is the mek'leth, and the verb is "die". Klingon marks both subjects and objects using verb prefixes (eg. jIHegh = I die, bIHegh = you die), but the prefix in this sentence sounded like qI- or ghI-, but those prefixes do not exist.

Martok: DaH!

[Now!]

TNG:

Worf and Jeremy: SoS jIH batlh SoH

[I am mother, you are the general concept of honour]

I suspect that this sentence was the result of the Star Trek writers treating Klingon as a cipher/word replacement engine rather than a language with its own set of grammatical rules. The suspected intention was "Mother I honour you", and they just replaced each individual English word with the Klingon "equivalent" (SoS = mother, jIH = I, batlh = the general concept of honour, SoH = you) Unfortunately, Klingon sentences are still object-verb-subject, and in the absence of any other verbs, Klingon pronouns double up as "to be" verbs (eg. jIH = I am, SoH = you are). So SoS jIH = "I am mother", and batlh SoH = "you are the general concept of honour"

I also specify batlh as being the "general concept of honour" because Klingon actually has another word for honour: quv, which refers to an individual's personal honour-status. quv is also a verb which means to be honoured/honourable, and the verb "to honour (somebody)" would be quvmoH (to cause someone to be honoured).

Therefore, the correct rendering of "Mother I honour you" would be SoS, qaquvmoH (qa- being the prefix that indicates a first person subject (I) to a second person object (you))

This probably goes without saying, but don't try to copy the pronunciations in these scenes either, because they are uhhhhh also bad 💀

I hope that helps!

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

I’m curious, is the official Klingon language info we have enough to translate the average tumblr post or do you occasionally need to improvise?

The Klingon language definitely has enough info to translate Tumblr posts!

Sometimes I do have to do some rewording and rearranging of words to make the meaning of the post conform to the (very strict) Klingon grammar, but I think that's something that happens when translating across any language ever XD

Coincidentally, I just finished translating that post about Worf's penises, and that one needed quite a lot of improvisation lmaooo

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

Hello, Klingon Translator man. I have a unique ask.

In a video game I enjoy, there is a line from an NPC.

"Kosh, kapleck Mog. Oh sorry, that's klingon for 'Buy something or die.'"

I came to ask, straight from the horse's mouth, does "Kosh, kapleck Mog" truly translate to "Buy something or die"?

Unfortunately, "Kosh, kapleck Mog" is not Klingon, and doesn't mean anything 😔

The way you'd actually say "buy or die" in Klingon is «bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh» (lit. if you do not buy, you will die)

I'm actually surprised that this phrase is the one that they messed up, since it's one of the first phrases they teach you on the Duolingo course, and it's written in The Klingon Way book too!

What game was this from btw? 👀

[translating-posts-into-klingon]

About a year ago I was trying to coin a term for an OC of mine and her orientation—she found honor attractive. As she was Klingon (well, kind of—she was Betazoid but raised by a Klingon house since infancy), I wanted to use the language to convey it had a deeper meaning than "I like honor" and that it was tied to her cultural identity

As per your last post, Klingon has two words for honor—batlh and quv. Would one be more fitting than the other in this context? I've been using "batlhic" to describe her orientation

Since your oc is attracted to the personal honour of people, you'd definitely want to use quv for that :)