[tlhIngan Hol] Expressing "god damn"

[nIqolay Q]

On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 11:35 AM, Lieven <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:

> Am 09.12.2016 um 15:06 schrieb mayqel qunenoS:
>
>> I didn't mean to say "your mother cooked this damn good food"; I meant
>> "your mother cooked this god damn food".
>>
>
> Well actually
> a) there's not much difference
> and
> b) you are trying to translate something Klingon has no concept for.
>
> Any expression that Christians use with the word "god" is only to thank or
> to curse their God (the "Lord").
>

Most negative expressions using "God" involve God cursing someone or
something, not the speaker cursing God. Using "god damn" as an adjective is
just a shortening of "god-damned", i.e., damned by God.

A literal translation of "god damn food" would probably be {Soj'e' qIchbogh
joH'a'} "food that the Lord has condemned", although it lacks the bite of
the original and, as Lieven said, curses involving religion are probably
not a big thing in Klingon culture.

{Sojvam vutta' SoSlI' jay'} should suffice to get most of the meaning
across. I'm not sure that {'Igh} quite works here. The description in KGT
suggests it means something like "doesn't work right, prone to failure,
unlucky" and not simply just bad in general.
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