[209] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: "HablI' ? labbeH"
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:20:41 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mark@cc.gatech.edu (Mark J. Reed)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 8:12:18 EST
In-Reply-To: <9202122250.AA29339@ima.ima.isc.com>; from "Captain Krankor" at Fe
\Ok, I rented ST:III and think I solved the mystery of this line.
\
\First, some background. Whereas Okrand in general worked with the actors
\on the language, he did not work with Valkris. As a result, it is safe
\to assume her pronounciation is not always 100%. In fact, certain language
\things apparently evolved *because* of her screwups. I'm fairly sure I
\remember Okrand saying this is how we got HISlaH in addition to HIja' (I
\*know* he said it was from *someone* screwing it up, though I'll be damned
\if I can figure out how someone would mangle it that badly; they're not
\even close).
'sokay - I like HISlaH better anyway. Flows more trippingly off the
tongue. :-)
\And I'd be willing to bet that jaw for "lord" was actually
\her mispronounced "joH" (in particular, pronouncing the H as a (silent)
\English h, a common mistake).
And I was thinking the same thing about "HablI'" - perhaps it was
supposed to be "labwI'"?
\Which leads me to my conclusion about the
\line in question:
\
\I believe that what she is saying is: HablI' Su' labbeH
\
\This would in fact be two sentences; adding English punctuation we get:
\
\HablI' Su'. labbeH. "Transmitter ready. Prepared to transmit."
I tried grouping it that way to translate it, but still couldn't come
up with an appropriate word for the middle syllable - I looked at "Su'", but
it didn't strike me as grammatically sensible...
\The other noteworthy thing is we actually indirectly get a new grammar rule
\from this script, though it is not explicitly stated anywhere in the
\dictionary. It appears that one can, in some cases, put a noun before an
\exclamation, in which case it acts as, essentially, the object of the noun.
\This is not just from this reconstructed example, there were other less
\disputable examples in the film. The one I clearly remember was:
\jabbI'ID pItlh "Transmission completed"
Ah so. With a wave of the pabpo's wand, it *becomes* grammatically
sensible. :-) Thanks, Captain - several things make more sense now.
\Another example of actor-screwup, by the way: When the bird of prey first
\decloaks, it is after we hear the captain give an order in tlhIngan Hol,
\with the subtitle "Deactivate cloak" or some such. What he says sounds
\very much like: "SopwI' yIchuHa'"; in fact, I think I've seen it transcribed
\here as just that. Slight problem: "SopwI' yIchuHa'" means "Deactivate
\the eater". 'cloaking device' is So'wI', not SopwI'.
I heard it as "So'wI'" actually. I don't think Mr. Lloyd actually said
"Sop" - it's just his accent. Also, they didn't bother subtitling it... one of
several Klingon lines in the movie that we Klingonophiles get to figure out on
our own. :-)
One other thing - I notice that when Kruge orders Valkris to transmit the data,
it's subtitled as "Transmit the data - now!" but what he actually says is "De'
vIlegh . . . DaH!". No imperative here, but a statement of fact. "I will see
the data - now!". Much more Klingon. :)
About the diagram on the screen when McCoy breaks into Spock's quarters:
\the diagram is a screw-up {{:-) It clearly depicts an old Constitution
\class ship, the kind from the old tv series, with the straight vertical
\pylons to the necelles, instead of the fancy, movie swept-back kind {{:-).
\The necelles definately look like the cylindrical old kind instead of
\the more rectangular 'modern' ones {{:-)
Never mind the fact that the little blinkenlight hardly pinpointed any
one *deck*, much less room. :-) That diagram, and several of the other
displays, were lifted directly from the old Starfleet Technical manual. Cuts
down on costs when you don't have to draw new pretty pictures. :)
One other tidbit: What Chekov says to Scotty in that scene is "Ya ne
sumashedshii! Nu, vot!" - roughly "I'm not crazy - look, there it is!"
--
Mark J. Reed College of Computing Technical Support
<mark@cc.gatech.edu> Georgia Institute of Technology
