So, to all of you, I thought I'd respond with this.
Showing posts with label klingon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label klingon. Show all posts
2013-06-30
2013-05-23
A Klingon Surprise
And now, a small surprise both for this blog and for followers of Klingon Teachings.
tlhejwI', qoch - A Klingon Love Poem
tlhejwI', qoch - A Klingon Love Poem
Companion, Partner - translated from the original Klingon
2013-05-21
New Blog - Klingon Teachings
I have created a new blog, dedicated to teaching the basics of tlhIngan Hol Klingon language.
I'm acknowledged across the UK as a pretty experienced expert on Klingon, and I have frankly tried making Klingon accessible to the general population for more than twenty years, now. And with Star Trek Into Darkness (poH mIgh 'el Hov leng) in the cinemas right now, this seems as good a time as any.
I began with the introductory post nuqneH. This said a little about the blog, and what it aims to do.
It was followed by this post, showing fifty highly useful Klingon nouns. A basic vocabulary which you can access regularly while learning the words off by heart.
So, then, tlhIngan paQDI'norgh is a go as of 2013 05 20. I hope you will stick with it, and learn enough Klingon to amaze and astonish your friends. Qapla'!
2013-05-11
Companion, Partner
Companion, Partner
She is one who is dear to me;Companion, Lover and Partner.
With an unbroken chain of devotion,
We have chosen one another.
My Companion's smile excites
And fascinates me.
Filling my heart with her light.
Fanning the flames
Of fanatical ferocity.
We will never fall out of
Love for one another.
When we are together,
All alone
In the passionate night,
Beneath the naked stars,
She ignites my soul.
She makes me to speak
True words
With a voice of power,
And I am not ashamed to show her
The face of my fear.
In case you were wondering: the Klingon version came first.
2013-05-09
All Fired Up
The Jason Mohammad segment is shortly to begin on BBC Radio Wales.Set Klingon phrases
I shall be using
I've been given the early morning wakeup call by the producer, and they are ready to roll from around 10:00 am. My part in this segment is due to start around 10:30 am.
I am all fired up for this interview, and equally fired up with enthusiasm for the screening of Star Trek Into Darkness later on tonight - and for my quiet meal with my plus one beforehand.
I've got a plus one to the event.
Let me restate that. I have got a plus one to come with me to the event.
With that in mind, here is a shortlist of the Klingon phrases I shall try to sneak in to the interview, among other interviews I shall make this month:-
I shall be using
| What do you want? | nuqneH |
| What did you say? | nuqjatlh |
| Star Trek | Hov leng |
| movie | jabbI''ID |
| Star Trek Into Darkness | poH mIgh 'el Hov leng |
| Success! | Qapla' |
| 2013 05 09 | cha'SaD wa'maH wej DIS, vagh jar, Hut jaj tera' poH |
| Star Trek Into Darkness has its premiere today. | DaHjaj wa'DIch poH mIgh 'el Hov leng jabbI''ID 'anglu' |
| Watch this show as soon as possible | narghpa' 'eb tugh jabbI'IDvam boleghnIS |
| Do you speak Klingon? | tlhIngan Hol dajatlhlaH'a' |
| Yes. | HIja' |
| No. | ghobe' |
Wish me success. The phone interview should begin any minute now. Qapla'!
Edit: Interview done.
Two gems from that interview:-
‘The Klingon for “Do you speak Klingon?” is a bit of a tongue twister if you’re not used to it. It’s tlhIngan Hol DajatlhlaH’a’? and if you do understand Klingon, you say HIja’ or HISlaH meaning yes, and if you don’t, you say “Sorry, but I don’t speak Klingon.”’
poH mIgh 'el Hov leng jabbI''ID The movie, "Star Trek Into Darkness"
'Of course the title "Star Trek Into Darkness" has to be poH mIgh 'el Hov leng Star Trek Enters An Evil Time where poH mIgh means evil time, a metaphorical dark rather than a physical dark, since the Enterprise is always travelling into the dark all the time, because that's what space is.'
2013-05-08
More Klingon Stuff
Just digging around for references to Star Trek and Klingon, the links to various articles from old interviews keep turning up.
2013-05-04
The following article is about me ...
Red carpet treatment for Klingon expert at cinema
All the stops pulled out for him as the launch of Star Trek Into Darkness approaches
AN IT expert who speaks fluent Klingon will be given the red carpet treatment when a cinema premieres the new Star Trek movie.
Alex Greene has been appointed an unofficial Klingon Ambassador to Wales by staff at the The Odeon cinema in Wrexham’s Eagles Meadow shopping centre as they prepare for the big night.
The cinema will be one of the first in the UK to screen the long-awaited Star Trek Into Darkness at precisely one minute past midnight on Thursday.
Alex's grasp of the intergalactic language is so good that he even writes poetry in Klingon. He will be given free passage to take his place in the audience for the latest voyage of the iconic starship Enterprise and its brave crew.
The 49-year-old is one of the country’s leading experts on the language of the Klingons, the fierce warrior race who have been the implacable foes of Captain James Kirk and his comrades since they first embarked on their intergalactic adventures on TV in the 1960s.
Alex, of Wrexham, has been specially invited to the early morning first screening by Odeon manager Andy Elvis.
During the latest installment of the Star Trek story the Enterprise battles against an unstoppable force of terror from within their organisation – and Kirk leads a manhunt to a war zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
Alex, who works as a freelance computer expert, has been a dedicated Trekkie since an early age. He decided to learn Klingon in 1986 – and took a year to master its considerable intricacies.
He said: “I have always enjoyed languages, listening to them and communicating with them. Up to 1986 it had been French, Japanese and Esperanto.
“Then a language specialist came up with an actual working grammar for Klingon for one of the Star Trek movies. It was designed so that actors could easily learn a couple of lines for a script. But later a Klingon dictionary was published. I picked up a copy and learned Klingon.”
Alex was recently hired by a large corporation – he can’t reveal which one – to translate abstracts of some of its scientific documents into Klingon. And S4C invited him to try to teach singer Shân Cothi and naturalist Iolo Williams some Klingon when they visited Wrexham to film for the Bro series.
Alex can’t wait to see the latest Star Trek offering, which stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana. He said: “I believe Star Trek Into Darkness – which in Klingon is ‘poH mIgh 'el leng Hov’ – features a lot of stunning imagery that the earlier films did not have. I’m just hoping it stays faithful to the original vision of its creator Gene Roddenberry.
Odeon manager Andy Elvis said: “We’re very fortunate to have such a renowned expert on Klingon – we just had to invite Alex to be one of the first to see Star Trek Into Darkness.”
2013-04-09
Klingon Language And Star Trek Into Darkness
leng Hov is the Klingon for Star Trek. That much is already established in Klingon language canon.
What does make wonder, however, is the Klingon translation for the forthcoming movie Star Trek Into Darkness.
The word for dark, be dark in Klingon is Hurgh - and, while translating the verb Hurgh as a noun, Hurgh darkness, is not canon - leng Hov Hurgh would seem like a good translation for Star Trek Into Darkness - "Dark Star Trek." Perhaps HurghchoH leng Hov even - Star Trek Darkens / Star Trek Becomes Dark.
One small problem with leng Hov Hurgh ... Hurgh, as a noun, is the Klingon for pickle. Star Trek Pickle just doesn't cut it.
My only thought is that, as the movie is about the Federation entering a time of evil and darkness, Star Trek Enters An Evil Time - poH mIgh 'el leng Hov - might be the best Klingon translation for the title.
Unless the show is about the characters of the USS Enterprise getting into a pickle ...
In any case, I have an interview about this forthcoming movie set for tomorrow evening, around 18:00, and I will probably consider using these terms during that interview. Which should be fun.
2011-12-05
The Serpent's Tongue
The other day, I presided over a meeting of the SF & Fantasy Readers Club; the last one of 2011, and enjoyable in and of itself, with many good titles recommended for me to take a look at in the near future such as Fevre Dream, George R R Martin's 1982 story set in the Antebellum Deep South; The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie's fantasy trilogy which, some may say, could outshine Game Of Thrones; and the enigmatic works of Jasper Fforde, particularly Shades of Grey.
And yet, when I revealed my own personal favourite, The Klingon Dictionary ... I got booed. I was the only one to get catcalls, and I had to try, this weekend, to figure out why.
The choices of Gormenghast and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Pit-Stop, The Collector Collector and the Lensman series, did not get booed. So why was mine selected, out of all of those choices, for scorn?
That thought actually baffled me for a time, and while I feel no closer to an answer than before, I'd like to say something about this particular book.
I bought my first copy of TKD when Pocket Books had it as a small blue book with a picture of a Klingon Bird of Prey on the cover. I still have all my old "blue books," or paqmey SuD "PACK-may SHOOD" in the language. In 1992, the second edition came out with its white cover - paq chIS "pack CHEESH," "White Book."
1992 was the year that the adventure truly began. Television, radio and press appearances, which would continue sporadically for many years - and still occasionally happen, usually around the time when a new Star Trek movie is released.
And convention appearances, which gave me some remarkable and fun experiences here and there all over the country - often, I might add, free - because someone like the BBC would pick up the tab for me. Very kind of them, thank you very much.
So, all of this time, and for the most pat where people have paid to enjoy experiences comparable to mine, others have as often as not paid me for the same.
Throughout this time, the contents of this book have never once bored me. I've dug through the book a thousand times, and always come away having learned something new.
Would that be any different to someone who has spent years reading Ian Banks' books, and now has a comprehensive knowledge of all things pertaining to The Culture? Does that make me any less a man than someone who could tell you things about Tolkien's Middle Earth you never realised, or who could recite any given passage from Anne McCaffrey's "The Dragonriders of Pern" word for word, or who could take you to all the little places in Alderley Edge where various events in "The Moon of Gomrath" took place?"
Here's the answer, in case you can't work it out. No, it does not make me any less of a man. It makes me as much a geek as they are, and as proud to be one as they are.
The Klingon Dictionary has been a companion book of mine, for better or worse, since 1985. It has never let me down, never bored me, never gone stale. In fact, other people with far less to begin with than I have pushed on with their studies of Klingon - and now head an institute which gives examinations in the language to students.
I could easily be a world figure like Lawrence Schoen, if I'd just ignored all of the catcalls and jeers from my peers.
And herein lies the root of all that hatred and scorn. I suspect, strongly, that the people who hate tlhIngan Hol the most hate it because they secretly envy us. They envy and fear people who can learn a language, whether it it a conlang like Klingon or a natlang like Japanese or Swedish or Navajo, and speak fluently in it, chat with others in it, even sing songs or crack jokes in the language.
tlhIngan Hol may have originally come out of Marc Okrand's head as a semi-light-hearted exercise, something to generate lines for the American comic actors Chris Lloyd ("Commander Kruge") and John Larroquette ("Maltz") to declaim in Star Trek III; but nowadays, Klingon has been referenced in shows as diverse as Frasier, Farscape and Doctor Who and parodied in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; and documents, biochemical scientific abstracts, Shakespeare plays, classic texts, road signs, blessings carved on stones, tourist information guide soundtracks and song lyrics have actually been written in Klingon, and poetry and operas have been composed in Klingon.
And all of this, spawned from one little blue book, released back in 1985.
So that brings me back to the original question of why my choice was the only one to get booed at the table. I still really and truly do not know why.
After all, I'd picked the theme for the meeting - "The Unmissables." That one book which, if you got marooned on a desert island, you would take with you out of your whole library.
A book which, in its way, has never let you down; never become stale or boring; and which, in its way, has shaped your life.
If I can't say that about The Klingon Dictionary; if I can't say that about the adventures it has brought me; if I can't acknowledge that TKD has shaped me such that when Kate Bush sings "peDtaH 'ej chIS qo'" ("ped-TAKH edge CHEESH ko") I hear the words and think "It is snowing continuously and the world is white"; what other book could I even consider as my "Unmissable" book?
So next time you decide to give someone like me the serpent's tongue for being a fan of TKD, don't be surprised if I upbraid you on attempting a privilege to which you are not entitled.
Thus ends my rant.
And yet, when I revealed my own personal favourite, The Klingon Dictionary ... I got booed. I was the only one to get catcalls, and I had to try, this weekend, to figure out why.
The choices of Gormenghast and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Pit-Stop, The Collector Collector and the Lensman series, did not get booed. So why was mine selected, out of all of those choices, for scorn?
That thought actually baffled me for a time, and while I feel no closer to an answer than before, I'd like to say something about this particular book.
I bought my first copy of TKD when Pocket Books had it as a small blue book with a picture of a Klingon Bird of Prey on the cover. I still have all my old "blue books," or paqmey SuD "PACK-may SHOOD" in the language. In 1992, the second edition came out with its white cover - paq chIS "pack CHEESH," "White Book."
1992 was the year that the adventure truly began. Television, radio and press appearances, which would continue sporadically for many years - and still occasionally happen, usually around the time when a new Star Trek movie is released.
And convention appearances, which gave me some remarkable and fun experiences here and there all over the country - often, I might add, free - because someone like the BBC would pick up the tab for me. Very kind of them, thank you very much.
So, all of this time, and for the most pat where people have paid to enjoy experiences comparable to mine, others have as often as not paid me for the same.
Throughout this time, the contents of this book have never once bored me. I've dug through the book a thousand times, and always come away having learned something new.
Would that be any different to someone who has spent years reading Ian Banks' books, and now has a comprehensive knowledge of all things pertaining to The Culture? Does that make me any less a man than someone who could tell you things about Tolkien's Middle Earth you never realised, or who could recite any given passage from Anne McCaffrey's "The Dragonriders of Pern" word for word, or who could take you to all the little places in Alderley Edge where various events in "The Moon of Gomrath" took place?"
Here's the answer, in case you can't work it out. No, it does not make me any less of a man. It makes me as much a geek as they are, and as proud to be one as they are.
The Klingon Dictionary has been a companion book of mine, for better or worse, since 1985. It has never let me down, never bored me, never gone stale. In fact, other people with far less to begin with than I have pushed on with their studies of Klingon - and now head an institute which gives examinations in the language to students.
I could easily be a world figure like Lawrence Schoen, if I'd just ignored all of the catcalls and jeers from my peers.
And herein lies the root of all that hatred and scorn. I suspect, strongly, that the people who hate tlhIngan Hol the most hate it because they secretly envy us. They envy and fear people who can learn a language, whether it it a conlang like Klingon or a natlang like Japanese or Swedish or Navajo, and speak fluently in it, chat with others in it, even sing songs or crack jokes in the language.
tlhIngan Hol may have originally come out of Marc Okrand's head as a semi-light-hearted exercise, something to generate lines for the American comic actors Chris Lloyd ("Commander Kruge") and John Larroquette ("Maltz") to declaim in Star Trek III; but nowadays, Klingon has been referenced in shows as diverse as Frasier, Farscape and Doctor Who and parodied in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; and documents, biochemical scientific abstracts, Shakespeare plays, classic texts, road signs, blessings carved on stones, tourist information guide soundtracks and song lyrics have actually been written in Klingon, and poetry and operas have been composed in Klingon.
And all of this, spawned from one little blue book, released back in 1985.
So that brings me back to the original question of why my choice was the only one to get booed at the table. I still really and truly do not know why.
After all, I'd picked the theme for the meeting - "The Unmissables." That one book which, if you got marooned on a desert island, you would take with you out of your whole library.
A book which, in its way, has never let you down; never become stale or boring; and which, in its way, has shaped your life.
If I can't say that about The Klingon Dictionary; if I can't say that about the adventures it has brought me; if I can't acknowledge that TKD has shaped me such that when Kate Bush sings "peDtaH 'ej chIS qo'" ("ped-TAKH edge CHEESH ko") I hear the words and think "It is snowing continuously and the world is white"; what other book could I even consider as my "Unmissable" book?
So next time you decide to give someone like me the serpent's tongue for being a fan of TKD, don't be surprised if I upbraid you on attempting a privilege to which you are not entitled.
Thus ends my rant.
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