Just out of curiosity...

[dolorous_ett]

Am I the only person around here who's wondered about learning Klingon?

Comments

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

I saw a copy of Hamlet in Klingon at a bookshop once, so, presumably there are people out there.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I know that that's technically really geeky - but how BRILLIANT!

Ah, captain, you haven't experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original Klingon

[tree_and_leaf]

There are lots of people out there:

http://www.kli.org/

It's a pretty good artificial language, actually - Marc Okrand is a decent linguist, and also a geek. Reputedly more people speak Klingon than Esperanto, but I don't know if that's true - it's probably easier to find Klingon speakers, though, if you're fannish.

They've also translated "Much Ado" and Gilgamesh.

(There's a reasonably detailed page on the Klingon Language at Wikipedia, though they're wrong about the "German Shakespeare myth" - I've encountered it independently, although I don't think, when Germans talked about "unser Shakespeare" they meant it literally!)

ETA: apparently the Klingon for 'fish' is ghotl'. I love lingusts and their terrible jokes...

Re: Ah, captain, you haven't experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original Klingon

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

That is the most BRILLIANT site I have seen in a long, long time! If I didn't have a pressing Real Life Deadline I'd be there yet.

I can see how people get caught up in the study of it.

Will go over again and fangirl some more in my lunch break. Fantasic stuff!

Re: Ah, captain, you haven't experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original Klingon

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

And I've just noticed that Google comes in Klingon!

Re: Ah, captain, you haven't experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original Klin

[tree_and_leaf]

Really? Wow!

*must not get distracted, must not get distracted*

Re: Ah, captain, you haven't experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original Klin

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

And here it is!

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon/

Re: Ah, captain, you haven't experienced Shakespeare till you have read him in the original

[tree_and_leaf]

A warrior's search engine!

[snorkackcatcher]

Wow, the original text, you mean? :)

[tree_and_leaf]

No. *looks shifty*

Not that I ever got much further than q'a'pla, though somewhere at my parents' I have a collection of quotations in Klingon.

[azurelunatic]

I have the phrase "Look at the woman-fruits on that one" (which I will mangle the spelling of: hucH ni'ha be'lortaS) drilled into my head thanks to my high school best friend's bid to learn at least certain useful phrases. For assorted variations of "useful", by high school boy priorities.

A vague familiarity with the language did come in somewhat handy in the actual work world, when I was a call center supervisor. We were supposed to call out "Activating!" when activating our dialer campaigns, to avoid collisions on the dialer computer.

So from around the room:
Sup1: "Activating!"
Sup2: "Activating!"
Joe: "chu'!"
Sup3: "Activati ... Joe, what the fuck."
Me: *headtilt* "Hol?"
Joe: "HIja'."
Sup1, Sup2, Sup3: *boggle*

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic moment. Am fangirling you *hugely* as wel speak.

I get moments like that with my other language - I don't look like the kind of person who could understand it so I get to earwig on all kind of conversations - and create little moments of surprise when I reveal myself...

Hardly in the same league as Klingon, though. So cool!

[azurelunatic]

Very different leagues indeed -- you know more than one entire language. I know English, and then tiny fragments of other things -- enough to get in trouble, not enough to get out of it. My Klingon is similarly limited.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

That's my one word, as well. I've taught Q to say it too.

[saralinda.livejournal.com]

Noooooooooo don't do it, it's a trap!!!!!!


BTW--I just watched the movie "Fanboys," there are so many good Star Wars vs. Star Trek scenes. It's dumb gross boy humor but I laughed anyway.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Don't worry - there's so many more things I really HAVE TO DO RIGHT NOW that there's no point in kidding myself it's a good moment to learn Klingon. I was just wondering how, that's all...

... though perhaps a little word here and there wouldn't hurt... a just little one...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I've wondered why...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Because communicating in sounds that are nothing like your mother tongue is FUN! And the further removed the better.

Of course, that could just be me...

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

This could be a start; it's by the man who designed t5he Klingon language (based on the few words James Doohan created for the first film) for Paramount.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

That is brilliant! I know what I'm getting for Christmas this year!

Thank you!

[purpleyuan.livejournal.com]

Klingon? I think I'd prefer to learn Vulcan ;P

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I can see why, because the Vulcan script is so lovely. And you're not the only one on my flist to think that. But Vulcan's a bit calm for me as a spoken language - I love the shoutiness of spoken Klingon.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

All the Trek languages. Especially in written form - they're so creative with some of their scripts.

There are people who do speak Klingon - weren't they translating Shakespeare? And I'm pretty sure I sure a recipe book in Klingon on Amazon once.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I imagine the Klingons would really quite go for Hamlet. Though I'm less convinced by the idea of a translated cookery book - I'm pretty sure they'd consider people like Jamie Oliver weak and unmanly...

[tree_and_leaf]

What about Gordon Ramsey?

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

Ramsey is old and bitter! His meat would be weak and tasteless!

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

But so tasty!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

This really makes me want to be able to draw - it's crying out to be made into fanart...

[tree_and_leaf]

I believe there has been discussion of a Klingon Bible. The problem is that while bits of it - especially the more vigorous bits of the Old Testament - work fine, there was some doubt as to whether it's even possible to say "turn the other cheek" or "blessed are the meek" in Klingon...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

You could translate "turn the other cheek" literally, but I agree that it would come across as defiance...

And I can't imagine "blessed are the meek" translating as anythign other than "blessed are the cowardly", unless perhaps you went with a freer "the cowards will be looked after"...

Fascinating....

[azurelunatic]

Perhaps the spirit like so?

Honor is served best when the one does not aggrandize one's own honorable actions. Honor in the eyes of the Lord is enough.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

oh than kgod thank god. now idon't feel weird an more for ocne downloaidng an online course of the because i've alwasy felt liek a comleet nerd (In the 'oh my god no!") sense of the word.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I'd sooner learn Klingon than Esperanto - not least because there are apparently more speakers of Klingon (thank you, Livejournal, for teaching me this exciting fact).

How much can you actually speak?

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

eh? it seems isnipped too much from my last comment. i was goig nto say an online course of elven languages. no clingon at all alas. haven't se nany startrek except a few bits of episodes that made me fal lasleep (probably because of the blips and buzz soudns i nthe background. apparentl ythey soothed m ybrain?"

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I only know "Namarie" - from the films! (well, that and a few bits of people's names).

Whenever someone said "namarie" in the films I always thought of being in China and having random people shout "Hello" at me because it was the only word of English they knew...

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

eheh it feels lie kthat yeah. like the times we wer inspai nand ocne you named holland the ycame up with football players who had logn since left our team but oh well.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Nope :).

Though I never got much beyond using my 'Klingon Dictionary' for much more than RPG reference purposes, more's the pity.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I love this thread - I thought I might not be the only one, but never dreamed that there'd be so many people showing an interest!

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

*grin*

It's amazing, isn't it?

I've got to admit that my fandom alias is derived from the Klingon communications officer of IKV Hay'taj, whom I played during, well, my entire teens and beyond, pretty much ;).