I'm learning a spot of Klingon in my spare time for a bit of fun. Whimsical ship names are especially good, so if any of you good people want yours translated (properly, not with Bing!) feel free to post below and I'll do my best.
I always find it fun to give ships names in the same language as the faction they belong to. Ordinarily, this means looking through translation-dictionaries for an hour or so per ship to name. (I'm pretty bad with other languages, so actually learning a fake one would be a waste of time for me.) However, I am getting a new fleet Mat'ha, and it needs a name. I was thinking something with hammer, but haven't given it much thought. Any suggestions? (Please also post the English translation of those suggestions.)
Edit: 2000th post, nice!
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
I actually did name my klingon sci-destroyer the IKS Pata'q. It was a total Pata'q but it served me well til my Mogh
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,690Community Moderator
I actually used some Kilrathi for my Klingon ships. Thrak'hath for my Kamarag Retrofit, Sivar for my Mirror Vo'Quv, K'Tithrak Mang for my old Negh'Var...
Although right now my Negh'Tev is the Doomhammer and my Mat'ha is the Erza Scarlet...
But hey! My KDF is an Orion female!
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
@kjwashington You should keep the capitalisation as it is for it to work.
Yeah, capitalisation in Klingon is not like it is in English; it is a different letter entirely, and there are only a few letters that are capitalised.
I came up with IKS yInmey ghanghwI' for a fanfic once. I was aiming for "one that ends lives prematurely".
"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"
@kjwashington You should keep the capitalisation as it is for it to work.
Yeah, capitalisation in Klingon is not like it is in English; it is a different letter entirely, and there are only a few letters that are capitalised.
My favorite one of these is IKS Quv from the Path to 2409. I'm pretty sure they meant quv, referring to personal honor, rather than Quv, spatial coordinates.
Cryptic's Romulan is even worse than their Klingon.
"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"
I'd appreciate it if you could tell me the Klingon word for "thunder," because none of the dictionaries I've found seem to list it. I ended up using a literal translation of "sound of an exploding storm."
I came up with IKS yInmey ghanghwI' for a fanfic once. I was aiming for "one that ends lives prematurely".
How can they die prematurely, if it was a good day to die?
They could have had a heart attack before the battle started. They say my ship decloaking is enough to kill men with fear. (An old joke between me and an old fleetmate. One time in a 1v1 PvP match, I decloaked behind him and he lost some crew.)
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
@farranor This is a common problem with fictional languages; the vocabulary isn't anywhere near complete. There isn't a word for thunder that I can find but if you don't mind a neologism I would suggest the following. Literally it means "cloud shout".
My Klingon commands the targhQeH and the targhQuch. I'm wondering if at some point I might comission the targhQeHqu'. Depends on the next change Cryptic implements I guess
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
And their Romulan. In the case of Sela's flagship, "shadow" is supposed to be spelled "laehval", not "leahval", and Faeht ("secret") is supposed to have two 'h's in it.
"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"
It frustrates the hell out of me, especially with Klingon which is a canonical language, that Cryptic blatantly ignores grammatical and spelling rules. Romulan and Vulcan at least are reasonably well-developed also, if not canonical, and they obviously follow the rules when it suits them and ignore them otherwise.
And their Romulan. In the case of Sela's flagship, "shadow" is supposed to be spelled "laehval", not "leahval", and Faeht ("secret") is supposed to have two 'h's in it.
Or maybe the Americans Romulans take poor letter out of words that the English Remans spent so long putting in? Somewhere on the Romulan internet, a bunch of Remans are staying up 'til well past their bedtime moaning about how 'Faehht' is spelt with two 'h's and that football is played with the feet not the hands.
As for Klingon ships, I really imaginatively put an I.K.S. in front of the class name (I.K.S. Vor'Kang, I.K.S. Quv, I.K.S. Negh'Var etc.).
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
The Klingon in this game is terrible. Just about the only thing that's spelled right is Qo'noS, and voice actors don't pronounce it properly. During one of the Delta quadrant episodes, Tim Russ calls it "quo-nose" even though there's a perfectly serviceable Americanized "Kronos" for those who can't manage the Klingon version.
@farranor This is a common problem with fictional languages; the vocabulary isn't anywhere near complete. There isn't a word for thunder that I can find but if you don't mind a neologism I would suggest the following. Literally it means "cloud shout".
'engjach
One neologism is as good as another, I suppose - as I said, I ended up going with "noise of an exploding storm," which I figured went like this:
I'm making a Foundry mission about the Fek'Ihri, and wanted to name one of their ships Vengeful Spirit as a reference to Warhammer 40,000. Can you tell me how to write it in Klingon?
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them." -Thomas Marrone
I'm making a Foundry mission about the Fek'Ihri, and wanted to name one of their ships Vengeful Spirit as a reference to Warhammer 40,000. Can you tell me how to write it in Klingon?
If I may have a go, the grammar makes it closer to "spirit of vengeance":
My KDF toon is Gorn, so he uses other names for his ships that a human would likely understand. Latin for reptile species in most cases, or a few with the names of lesser known dragons. "MAQMIGH", which is a temporal destroyer, is the only Klingon name I found which I like. It refers to an approaching evil or dread. I never really got that the Gorn were not in the Federation as human allies since they were supposed to be according to my knowledge.
My KDF toon is Gorn, so he uses other names for his ships that a human would likely understand. Latin for reptile species in most cases, or a few with the names of lesser known dragons. "MAQMIGH", which is a temporal destroyer, is the only Klingon name I found which I like. It refers to an approaching evil or dread. I never really got that the Gorn were not in the Federation as human allies since they were supposed to be according to my knowledge.
Technically it's:
maQmIgh
For Klingon, uppercase and lowercase English/Roman glyphs are used to represent different letters rather than to express grammar.
Comments
Edit: 2000th post, nice!
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
http://www.kli.org
I flew the IKS Yoq YicH before that's the IKS Chocolate Tribble. It's been a while but I think that's the name.
Fleet leader Nova Elite
Fleet Leader House of Nova elite
@ren_larreck
Am I on the right tracks?
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
Thrak'hath for my Kamarag Retrofit, Sivar for my Mirror Vo'Quv, K'Tithrak Mang for my old Negh'Var...
Although right now my Negh'Tev is the Doomhammer and my Mat'ha is the Erza Scarlet...
But hey! My KDF is an Orion female!
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
This one I like. Dibs. Should I capitalize the first letters or does that change the meaning of the words?
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
My character Tsin'xing
Yeah, capitalisation in Klingon is not like it is in English; it is a different letter entirely, and there are only a few letters that are capitalised.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Cryptic's Romulan is even worse than their Klingon.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
How can they die prematurely, if it was a good day to die?
They could have had a heart attack before the battle started. They say my ship decloaking is enough to kill men with fear. (An old joke between me and an old fleetmate. One time in a 1v1 PvP match, I decloaked behind him and he lost some crew.)
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
Also, do you know of anyone as experienced as you with Romulan? I've been quite unsatisfied with my Romulan ship names for some time.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
Cryptic really needs to work on their Klingon.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
MatHa vaghHIch (Five Guns)
Qib qIjyo' (Black Fleet)
Tadaari tlhaqDuj (Clock Ship)
B'Rel ngo'Duj (Old Ship)
Kar'Fi moHDuj (Ugly Ship)
Kazon He'So'Duj (Stinky Ship)
Marauder Qu'vatlh (Hundred Missions, implies promiscuity)
Nov yoDHoSqoq (Supposedly Strong Shields)
Peghqu' veQDuj (Garbage Ship)
Varanus qulDuj (Fire Ship)
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Or maybe the Americans Romulans take poor letter out of words that the English Remans spent so long putting in? Somewhere on the Romulan internet, a bunch of Remans are staying up 'til well past their bedtime moaning about how 'Faehht' is spelt with two 'h's and that football is played with the feet not the hands.
As for Klingon ships, I really imaginatively put an I.K.S. in front of the class name (I.K.S. Vor'Kang, I.K.S. Quv, I.K.S. Negh'Var etc.).
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
One neologism is as good as another, I suppose - as I said, I ended up going with "noise of an exploding storm," which I figured went like this:
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
If I may have a go, the grammar makes it closer to "spirit of vengeance":
qa’ bortaS
Technically it's:
For Klingon, uppercase and lowercase English/Roman glyphs are used to represent different letters rather than to express grammar.
'IwlIj jachjaj --- May your blood scream!
nuqneH --- What do you want? (a confrontational greeting)
veQDuj --- Garbage Scow
ghIj cha'par --- Scarecrow (actually 'Scare bird')
'Iw 'op DIjlu'ta'bogh --- Blood bath
Fixed that for you!
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!