It is a funny story, but think how much better would it be if the translator used {nargh} for Peter... as he should have, to make the "you are Petrus (Stone), and on this stone I will build my church"... line understandable to galactic converts... Luciano On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 8:25 AM Lieven L. Litaer <levinius@gmx.de> wrote:
This is a topic that comes back over and over, and there are divided opinions: Some strictly say DON'T, others say Why not?
Well, I just noticed a nice event that shows what can happen: (and even though I may mix up something, It's a good example)
Step 1: Many years ago, somebody translated The Gospel of John into Klingon. While doing so, they decided to transcribe many names. One of them is "peter" which turned out to pe'tlhoS, probably based on Latin Petrus.
Step 2: Somehow, this text was added to the database of Bing. The software started to learn and found out the word for "Peter" (which is actually nonsense, because it's a name that should not be translated, but that's another topic).
Step 3: Some lazy workers at FOX studios uses Bing to translate a Klingon dialogue. And so, the Klingon version of "Peter" pops up in Family Guy!
Step 4: If anyone who knows nothing about Klingon, Okrand, our group's conventions, or anything, tries to analyze that text - assuming they find out the corrected grammar - they will also find that pe'tlhoS is Klingon for "Peter".
BUT IT'S NOT!
So you see how one apparently minor insignificant decision can have large consequences many years later.
That's why I still keep insisting that translators should avoid making transliterations and making up new words as much as possible.
Just my 2 cents on this. I agree that we may disagree.
-- Lieven L. Litaer aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany" http://www.klingonisch.de http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/StarTrekDiscovery _______________________________________________ tlhIngan-Hol mailing list tlhIngan-Hol@lists.kli.org http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org
-- Luciano Montanaro Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. -- Douglas Adams