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Forums > Home› Feedback› Klingon Discussion

Grammer!In Klingon

lessley00lessley00 Member Posts: 1,200 Arc User
edited June 2015 in Klingon Discussion
A duplicate thread of the one in the Romulan gameplay thread.

Could I get a good name for my sci's Breen carrier and my engi's Negh'var? Complete with translation as well. Just good Klingon names that's all.
Captain Joseph Riker, U.S.S. Odyssey==General V'Mar, U.S.S. Blackwater-A==Admiral Laura Holmes, U.S.S. Forward Unto Dawn
Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv
Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas
Post edited by lessley00 on

Comments

  • schloopdooschloopdoo Member Posts: 373 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Bing Translator offers translation from a whole bunch of Earth languages to Klingon and back. You could play around with it for a bit, to ensure that you get a name that you really mean.
  • vindicivuotovindicivuoto Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    If you provide rough examples of what you want, I could look into it. As with any other language, finding Klingon words isn't the problem - it's the way they interact in a sentence that's tricky.

    Off the top of my head, when I hear Breen, I think suck (as in energy syphon! Such thoughts, Jean-Luc!). So, 'Iwghargh (bloodworm) might fit here.
  • lopequillopequil Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    Here are a couple to get you started. If you can think of a couple of ideas yourself I'd be very happy to try and give you a good translation.

    pe'vIl matlh for Loyalty by Force, a good name for the Sarr Theln I think. The implication is that the loyalty of the crew was obtained by force. Or matlh je'ta' for bought loyalty, which might be more fitting for the Breen.
    tobta' muvmoH for Proven (i.e. tested in battle, of course) Recruit.

    My main ship is called the reH Highrup (Always ready to fight dirty). Feel free to... borrow that one if it takes your fancy.

    qay'be' is a good short one. Means "no problem/no worries".
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  • rezkingrezking Member Posts: 1,109 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    schloopdoo wrote: »
    Bing Translator offers translation from a whole bunch of Earth languages to Klingon and back. You could play around with it for a bit, to ensure that you get a name that you really mean.

    No kidding.
    It doesn't have one for "thunder".
    NO to ARC
    RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
  • trillbuffettrillbuffet Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    rezking wrote: »
    No kidding.
    It doesn't have one for "thunder".

    What I do in this kind of situation is use a word that describes the result of said word because that is usually how Klingon words flesh with one another. That and in a lot of cases you need to rename your ship before a spelling bee winner looks at like 3 letters of a random generated name and reports you for racism when you didn't realize a randomly generated name would be put in that would offend someone in that way lol.
  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,965 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    schloopdoo wrote: »
    Bing Translator offers translation from a whole bunch of Earth languages to Klingon and back. You could play around with it for a bit, to ensure that you get a name that you really mean.

    The Bing translator is actually pretty bad at grammar. If you want an accurate name you're better off constructing one yourself. Two useful sources:
    One of my personal favorites is sander233's MuH QeDmo’ ("death by science").
    "Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
    — Sabaton, "Great War"
    VZ9ASdg.png

    Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
  • rezkingrezking Member Posts: 1,109 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    Well...apparently there is no word for "thunder".

    The closest I can think of would be 'eng bom or "cloud song".
    Not sure about the grammar.
    NO to ARC
    RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
  • vindicivuotovindicivuoto Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    That's what I found: SIS - rain (verb), chuS - be noisy (verb). Using the suffix wI' (thing which does), we make a noun out of the former and let the latter serve as an adjective: SISwI' chuS, which would amount to "noisy rain". Or make nouns out of both words, getting SISwI' chuSwI' (noise of the rain), although it feels even more cumbersome.

    Something tells me a proper Klingon would just scoff at this and offer something monosyllabic and easy on the tongue. As far as the Klingon language can be easy on the tongue :rolleyes:

    Apparently, there's also wab for sound, noise. So, to add to the above, SISwI' wab for "noise of the rain". Again. Truth to tell, I'm not quite sure about "nounizing" verbs in that manner.
  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,965 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    Ok, so I asked sander233 and he suggested "chalvo' wab", meaning "sound from the sky".
    "Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
    — Sabaton, "Great War"
    VZ9ASdg.png

    Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
  • rezkingrezking Member Posts: 1,109 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    starswordc wrote: »
    Ok, so I asked sander233 and he suggested "chalvo' wab", meaning "sound from the sky".

    I like my suggestion better :P
    Sounds more appropriate in a Klingon Opera.
    NO to ARC
    RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
  • lopequillopequil Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    vindicivuoto wrote: »
    That's what I found: SIS - rain (verb), chuS - be noisy (verb). Using the suffix wI' (thing which does), we make a noun out of the former and let the latter serve as an adjective: SISwI' chuS, which would amount to "noisy rain". Or make nouns out of both words, getting SISwI' chuSwI' (noise of the rain), although it feels even more cumbersome.

    Something tells me a proper Klingon would just scoff at this and offer something monosyllabic and easy on the tongue. As far as the Klingon language can be easy on the tongue :rolleyes:

    Apparently, there's also wab for sound, noise. So, to add to the above, SISwI' wab for "noise of the rain". Again. Truth to tell, I'm not quite sure about "nounizing" verbs in that manner.

    SISwi' I think would be rain cloud or sprinkler, lit. "Thing which rains". There are a lot of verb/noun pairs so I would just stick with SIS chuSa' for (loud) rain noise.
    Q9BWcdD.png
  • vindicivuotovindicivuoto Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    lopequil, you're right, of course. My noise-making rain-maker won't fly here :o
  • dareaudareau Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    While we're on the subject, can I take a moment to get some clarity?

    I've always loved the old Ford / FASA Klingon word Kinshaya - translated to Demon(s).

    Therefore, my KDF Main has been naming her ships Kinshaya [blank], with the blank replacing the blank with various Klingon "bladed weapons" as per Bing - one of her first ones was the Kinshaya Bat'leH...

    Is that more-or-less the "right" way to do it in proper Shakespearean Klingon?
    Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...

    To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
  • demonicaestheticdemonicaesthetic Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    starswordc wrote: »
    Ok, so I asked sander233 and he suggested "chalvo' wab", meaning "sound from the sky".

    Chen Wab - Cloud Noise, seems more appropriate for thunder. Add 'puq' on the end and it's Thunderchild.
    <center><font size="+5"><b>Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day...
    Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
  • vindicivuotovindicivuoto Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    dareau, are you sure about the translation? The word for demon seems to be veqlargh. The article about the Kinshaya on Memory Beta has an interesting piece:
    What began the conflict is uncertain, but the Klingon thirst for conquest and the Kinshaya insistance that Klingons are "Demons" are both likely causes.

    I admit, it would be ironic and kind of fitting if they regarded each other as demons.

    Anyway, according to the following extract from the Klingon Dictionary by Marc Okrand, you have the right idea:
    In addition, it is possible to combine nouns in the manner of a compound noun to produce a new construct even if it is not a legitimate compound noun ("legitimate"' in the sense that it would be found in a dictionary). The translation of two nouns combined in this way, sayp.31 N1-N2 (that is, noun #1 followed by noun #2), would be <N2 of the N1.> For example, {nuH} <weapon> and {pegh} <secret> combine to form {nuH pegh} <secret of the weapon.> An alternate translation would be <N1's N2,> in this case, <the weapon's secret.> As discussed in section 3.3.4, this is the Klingon possessive construction for a noun possessed by another noun.

    My D7 ghawran mInDu' (Gowron's eyes) is named in the same fashion. By the way, if you intend to use plural forms in your names, you'll need certain suffixes. For example, veqlarghpu' tajmey for "daggers of demons", or "demons' daggers". Here we have the suffix pu', which is reserved for "beings capable of speech" (I assume, even demons can utter a curse or two on occasion), and the suffix mey, which is for general use, including said beings (but can't be used for body parts, it's just the suffix Du' for those, like in mInDu', "eyes"). Unless a willful Klingon poet decides otherwise. Go figure.
  • lopequillopequil Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    Possessives have the owner first as with my b'rel: chang batlhHa' (Chang's Dishonour). I had to cheat a bit and use a verb suffix but it seemed the best option.
    Q9BWcdD.png
  • dareaudareau Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    vindicivuoto wrote: »
    dareau, are you sure about the translation? The word for demon seems to be veqlargh. The article about the Kinshaya on Memory Beta has an interesting piece:



    I admit, it would be ironic and kind of fitting if they regarded each other as demons.

    I "latched on" to Kinshaya as "Klingon for Demon" way back (as I hinted) when all I had was the FASA RPG - which ran with the notion that the KDF was fighting a coreward enemy of great ferocity, etc. etc., and named them the Kinshaya (at the time, their word for Demon).

    Then to find out that it was the Ford novels that started that, and so I thought that it was "as official as it was going to be".

    And yeah, from what I've seen of the "fleshing out" of the Kinshaya, they wound up doing the same as well, so you have the "ironic situation of both races thinking that both races are demons"...

    And now we have the Fek'hiri also playing "Demon"...
    Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...

    To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
  • vindicivuotovindicivuoto Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    lopequil wrote: »
    I had to cheat a bit and use a verb suffix but it seemed the best option.


    You mean, because batlh is either a noun or an adverbial? Thing is, klingonska.org lists several straightforward options for "dishonor":

    DavHam ("false honor", noun)
    quvHa' ("be dishonored", verb, can be used as an adjective)
    quvHa'ghach ("dishonor", noun)
    quvHa'moH ("dishonor", verb, more adjective material)

    Plus some useful details:
    (DavHam) covers the same semantic ground as both HoQ [be honored falsely] and Qaq [behave falsely honorably] (but not really mIl [be formerly honored]). DavHam is different from quvHa’ghach dishonor (noun) in that the latter does not imply seeming to be honorable or the appearance of honorability, but rather the lack of or loss of honor.

    Alternatively - my personal favorite - one could go for irony by using the suffix -qoq, as in chang batlhqoq or chang quvqoq ("Chang's So-Called Honor"). So, the choices are plentiful.

    dareau, I see. I've little experience with the expanded universe. "Uhura's Song" mostly. I ought to rectify this.

    The word itself, Kinshaya, sounds Vulcan to me. A strict theocratic society, used to fly... Could it be that they once flew over the Raptor's wing? :D
  • lopequillopequil Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    edited June 2015
    I had only looked at The Klingon Dictionary before; that site was very helpful and I'm minded to buy the book.
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