How do you translate into Klingon or Vulcan?

Answer 1

I personally can speak (some) Klingon. If you need to have something translated please post the question on WikiAnswers and I will endevour to translate for you.

Answer

I can't speak much Klingon, but I read somewhere that "nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'" means "Where's the restroom?" The q is said like a k pronounced at the back of the throat.

Answer

You could also say: nuqDaq yuch Dapol? Which means: Where do you keep the chocolate?

Answer

Some of the other more interesting sounds of Klingon are Q, ng, gh, and tlh. Q (which is different from q) is done by basically making a choking sound all the way in the back of your throat. It is the first sound in the popular Klingon word Qapla', which means "success". ng is the same as English ng, but unlike in English, in Klingon it can appear at the *beginning* of a word. For instance, there is the word ngan, which means "inhabitant". To say this, imagine saying "Klingon", but then leaving out the K-l-i, and just saying the "ngon" part.

The gh sound is like growling or gargling. Indeed, the Klingon word for gargle uses it twice: ghagh. The tlh is perhaps the hardest to explain. I've heard it described as a t followed by a whispered l (that's a lower case L, not an upper case i). What you do is put the tip of your tongue against the top front of your mouth and make a t sound, immediately followed by letting raspy air come out the sides of your tongue (still leaving it where it was, tip against the top front of the mouth). This sound doesn't exist in English, but does in Aztec. It's a very important sound in Klingon, since it is the first sound in the word for "Klingon", which is tlhIngan. Indeed, to ask someone if they speak Klingon, you would say: tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'? ("Do you speak Klingon?"). Note that tlhIngan means Klingon as in a Klingon *person*. The Klingon Language is said as tlhIngan Hol (Hol means "language"). Oh, let's clarify the I (capital i, not lower case L). This vowel is always pronounced as short English i, as in "big", "sit", or "listen". So, tlhIngan sounds just like "Klingon" except for the tlh at the very beginning instead of K.

So let's make a sentence with all these interesting sounds:

tlhIngan Qe' DaSammeH Qapla' Daghajjaj.

"May you have success finding the Klingon restaurant."

P.S. If you really want to learn Klingon, you'll want to get "The Klingon Dictionary" by Marc Okrand. More than just a dictionary, it describes the sounds and the grammar and everything. Klingon has a fascinating and unique grammar. For example, if I were to translate the five individual words of the above sentence literally, they would mean "Klingon", "restaurant", "in order that you locate it", "success", and "may you have it".

Answer 2

wIj pong

Actually, that's completely wrong. It's what you get when you try to do word-for-word translation and ignore grammar. Klingon has its own grammar, which is completely different from English.

In this case, the problem is that -wIj is not an independent word, it is a suffix. So the correct way to say "my name" is pongwIj. Just as you can say paqwIj for "my book", or DujwIj for "my ship", or Qapla'wIj for ("my success").

By the way, there's a different suffix used if the object in question is a person (technically, a being capable of using language). In that case, it's -wI' instead of -wIj. So "my mother" is SoSwI' and "my captain" is HoDwI' and "my friend" is jupwI'. Do not confuse this with the *other* suffix -wI' (there are two). The other suffix -wI' is a verb suffix. It's just like the English suffix "er"-- you stick it on a verb and it turns it into the-one-who-does-the-verb. So, just like "sing" + "er" makes "singer", bom + -wI' makes bomwI', a singer. Of course, once you put the -wI' on a verb, that makes it a noun, and if that noun is a person, you can stick the *other* -wI' on it like this:

bom - sing

bomwI' - a singer

bomwI'wI' - my singer

Sorry to have strayed so far from the original question. Again, "my name" in Klingon is pongwIj. But if the question was how to say your own name in Klingon, then the answer is really to just say it the same way you always do. Names don't really translate. The perfect answer would be to approximate your name as best as possible within the phonology of Klingon. Some names are easy. If your name is "Bob", then you would write it bab, but pronounce it just like you always do. On the other hand, some names have sounds which just don't exist in Klingon. For instance, if your name is "Zeke", you're in trouble, because Klingon doesn't have a Z sound. So I'd just say Zeke. As in: Zeke 'oH pongwIj'e' ("My name is Zeke.")

Answer 3

The same way as you translate into any other language: by learning the language. I can't speak to Vulcan, but for Klingon, step one is to get "The Klingon Dictionary", by Marc Okrand. It will give you grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

Answer 4

HIja' jIH jatlh tlhIngan

Actually, the above is totally wrong. It is a word-for-word translation that completely ignores Klingon grammar. Klingon grammar is totally different from English grammar. What the above actually translates as is "Yes a Klingon speaks a viewing screen."

The correct answer is: HIja', tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh.

If you really wanted to emphasize the "I" (as in, "Yes, *I*-- as opposed to someone else-- speak Klingon"), then you could say: HIja', tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh jIH.

Answer 5

What is Klingon? You're serious? That's Trekkie 101, dude. Klingon is the language spoken by Klingons! There are some super-Trekkies who can actually speak the language with correct grammar! The Klingons are an empirical species that's kind of like the Romulans, except those two species hate each other. If you look up "Klingon" with Google Images, you can see what they look like.