Star Trek fans get lessons in how to speak Klingon
Dubai's Eton Institute has decided to boldly go where no language school has gone before - by adding Klingon, the dialect of Star Trek baddies, to its repertoire.
Few people realise that the warriors’ guttural words created for the cult TV series and movies is widely spoken around the world both by Trekkies and people fascinated by languages.
The alien language was created by Marc Okrand for ‘Star Trek: The Movie’, and it is the only specially created language to be adopted and even developed by an entire community of fans across the globe.
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Few people realise that the warriors’ guttural words created for the cult TV series and movies is widely spoken around the world
It is so popular that internet search engine Google has Klingon as one of its options so people can search and surf in warrior speak.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing have been translated and published into Klingon as has the Bible. And now, the Eton Institute is offering
budding students the chance to learn alien vocabulary with two mini-classes in cyberspace - via facebook and Twitter. Those who want to seek out the new language can follow up by investing in CD-based classes.
Marketing manager at Eton, Moaz Khan, said yesterday: “Every community or group has its own rules and over time it develops its own distinctive language, expressions and subculture. Klingon is no exception to this.
“Learning a language is as much about the culture as the grammar. It can be really fun.
“Our mission here at the Eton Institute is to offer the widest possible selection of languages and to continue to expand this, whether they are terrestrial or intergalactic.
“We are planning on offering more courses, as well as geographical expansion over the next few years. Space is our final frontier!” Eton Institute’s Klingon lessons will run for a week, starting today on facebook and Twitter. Lessons and proverbs in Klingon will be beamed up to those sites daily for fans, who can also take part in a competition to win prizes.
All you have to do is ‘like’ the Eton Institute on facebook or follow it on Twitter.
myra@7days.ae
ESSENTIAL KLINGON
ENGLISH: If you don’t like it go home.
KLINGON: Chugh SoH don’t rur ‘oH jaH home.
ENGLISH: Are you going to ladies night tonight?
KLINGON: oH SoH ghoS Daq ‘ladies night’ tonight?
ENGLISH: I ended up in Rock Bottom last night.
KLINGON: jIH Dung Daq Rock Bottom ram night.
ENGLISH: Can I have a chicken shawarma and two bullfrogs.
KLINGON: Can jIH ghaj a chicken shawerma je two bullfrogs.
ENGLISH: Did you see that cheetah cruising
down JBR?
KLINGON: Ta’ta’ SoH legh vetlh cheetah cruising
blng JBR?
And for the Jumeirah Janes:
ENGLISH: My maid seems to have become so lazy!
KLINGON: WIj maid seems Daq ghaj moj
vaj lazy!
Translations from Mrklingon.org and Google Translate. Nobody in the 7DAYS office speaks Klingon... yet.
Comments
by loghaD
Thursday, April 26 2012, 3:15AM
“I accidentally wrote above that bo'DIj was Klingon for bird. This word actually means "court" (noun); I should have written bo'Degh, and a "chicken bird" should be chI'qen bo'Degh.”
by loghaD
Wednesday, April 25 2012, 12:58PM
“It's good that you meantion that you used MrKlingon.org. However, please note that it does not produce accurate translations: http://tinyurl.com/7de2uox
For example, looking at the first sentence:
ENGLISH:âIf you don't like it go home.
KLINGON: Chugh SoH don't rur 'oH jaH home.
First of all: Don't capitalize the first letter; romanized Klingon is "case-sensitive".
-chugh is a verb suffix, meaning "if". It cannot stand as a word on its own, however.
SoH means "you" (singular) or "you're". However, in Klingon, pronouns are usually expressed using verb prefix: DaparHa' = Da- + par = (you-it) + dislike = You dislike it
Negations are handled by suffixes in Klingon, which is why "don't" isn't translated.
rur means "like" as in "resembles", not as in "be fond of".
'oH means "it" or "it's", but in Klingon, it should come before the verb, not after (and you don't even have to write it if you use the right verb prefix).
jaH means "go", but "home" (juH) should come before the verb, since Klingon is object-verb-subject, and you also need to use the yI- verb prefix to make this a command.
To sum up, the sentence should be:
Daparchugh juHlIj yIjaH. - If you dislike it, go to your home!
As for the rest of them:
Are you going to ladies night tonight?
be'pu' ram'e' [DaHjaj ram] bIjeS'a'? = Are you participating [tonight] with respect to the women's night?
...or:
DaHjaj ram be'pu' ram wanI' DajaH'a'? = Will you go to the women's night event tonight?
I ended up in Rock Bottom last night.
wa'Hu' ram "Rock Bottom"Daq jItu''egh. = I found myself in "Rock Bottom" yesterday night.
Can I have a chicken shawarma and two bullfrogs.
This one is rather difficult, since we know of no Klingon words for "chicken", "shawarma" or "bullfrog". Going with some phonetic approximations:
chI'qen bo'DIj Se'warma nay', cha' bulvIraghmey je vIneH. = I want a chI'qen bird Se'warma dish, and two bulvIragh.
Did you see that cheetah cruising down JBR?
JBR He ghoS qughbogh chIy'ta vIghro' 'e' Dalegh'a'? = Did you see that the cruising chIy'ta cat traveled the JBR path?
[Again, difficult because cheetahs are Earth animals. I here went with a phonetic approximation, but you could also substitute chIy'ta Ha'DIbaH with QIncha' (Krencha; a large, quick and fierce lizard), Hun (khrun; a Klingon riding animal) or targh (targ; the most well-known of Klingon animals).]
JBR could be spelled out either as jay bay ray (the names of the Klingon letters j, b and r), or jey' bIy' 'ar, which resembles the English abbreviation phonetically.
My maid seems to have become so lazy!
buDqu'choHlaw'pu' toy'wI'wI'! = My servant appears to have become really lazy!”