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'ay' 7: Hut HIch

<<wa'DIch     <vebHa'     veb>     HochDIch (DIvI' Hol)>>

qoq 'oHmo' tlhoS qar. jItlhIj, <<droid>> jIjatlh 'e' vIHech.

tlhIngan Hol: David Trimboli (SuStel), Robyn Stewart (Qov)

Translator Notes

This one is something really special. And complicated to explain.

This episode is all about reacting to the dumb accent of the Trade Federation guys. In Klingon we have information about a number of regional dialects. The one I'm using here is Morskan. You hear it in Star Trek VI when the Morska Listening Post challenges the Enterprise (rather languidly) at the Klingon border. Marc Okrand intentionally made those lines in a regional dialect. (Duj vets 'o nuq? rIn.)

So the title of this episode is Hut HIch. In standard Klingon, this means nine pistols. But this is also how a Morskan would pronounce the speech is vulgar, which in standard Klingon would be Qut QIch. One of the Morskan characteristics is that the harsh stop Q (which sounds like you're trying to cough up some food) is changed to a not-quite-so-harsh H (which is like the Scottish ch). (To say nine pistols, a Morskan would say hut hIch, where the h sounds like our h.)

Another dialect characteristic is to pronounce the tlh like ts, a sound that otherwise cannot occur in Klingon. So when the Trade Federation guy says 'avwI'pu', porghmeyvets lel (Guards, remove those bodies), instead of standard 'avwI'pu', porghmeyvetlh lel, the players recognize the Morskan dialect.

So what do they assume the Morskan is? A border guard (HeH 'avwI'), just like in Star Trek VI!

Qov's reaction was to wonder at first what the title had to do with the story... the story is about accents, and... ohhhh! So I think it works.


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Published: Friday, 02 May, 2008; 22:18:49 PDT.
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