Yeah, the machine translators I’ve tried are absolutely terrible – I can’t find one that can round-trip some text without turning it into absolute gibberish.
I’m only like halfway through unit 1 in Duolingo, but I did the translation myself and I think I did a better job (note: Klingon sentences are structured object-verb-subject):
nuq = what
jI- = indicates a command
jalIh = to say, to speak
-Qo’ = again
thlIngan Hol = the Klingon language
petaQ = well-known generic expletive (I didn’t try to find something that literally translated to “mother fucker”)
Da- = can, able
-‘a’ = indicates a question
nuq jIjalIh = say “what” again!
thlIngan Hol petaQ DajalIh’a’ = Klingon, motherfucker, do you speak it?!
Not sure why it doesn’t get petaQ, but otherwise seeing the usual dialect problems that come with these kinds of translators.
Yeah, the machine translators I’ve tried are absolutely terrible – I can’t find one that can round-trip some text without turning it into absolute gibberish.
I’m only like halfway through unit 1 in Duolingo, but I did the translation myself and I think I did a better job (note: Klingon sentences are structured object-verb-subject):
nuq = what
jI- = indicates a command
jalIh = to say, to speak
-Qo’ = again
thlIngan Hol = the Klingon language
petaQ = well-known generic expletive (I didn’t try to find something that literally translated to “mother fucker”)
Da- = can, able
-‘a’ = indicates a question
nuq jIjalIh = say “what” again!
thlIngan Hol petaQ DajalIh’a’ = Klingon, motherfucker, do you speak it?!
What does petaQ literally translate to? I always assumed it was like “fucker” or something.
From wikibooks
It’s like a derogatory dismissal. Basically a claim someone is unable to uphold honor. An dishonored invalid.