On Mon, 15 Feb 2021 at 18:35, Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu> wrote:
Grokh: Qo'! pe'vIl DIHIvlaH, <QaplaH> tlhob <be---HaH > (??) -or-
<QaplaH <pla'> pe'vIl <or: Qapla' ghobe' laH'a'> (??)
(We can take whole by force, what they propose to divide.)
[...]
And yes, before you ask, Grokh’s line was nearly unintelligible even though we have the subtitle and I’ve included a couple of versions I’ve collected. Has anyone finally figured out what the actor was trying to say?
Dr. Okrand didn't remember the original line when I asked him about it, but acknowledged that it had been flubbed. In that case, recovery is likely impossible. The reconstruction which I have in the latest draft of my Klingon subtitles for Star Trek VI has this: {Qang, wa' naQ'e' pe'vIl wItlhaplaH, Dol lulaghpa'.} Anyone who's interested can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/ak6Gln1ACnA?t=56 Admittedly, it's not an exact match, but it was as close as I was able to get and still have something resembling the meaning of the English subtitles. {pe'vIl}, "forcefully, by force", {naQ} "be full, whole, entire, complete", and {lagh} "take apart, disassemble" were likely invented for this line, as they appear in the Appendix of TKD and match the intended meanings, but only {pe'vIl} can be heard clearly. {wav} "divide" might've been intended to be in this sentence based on the meaning, but if so, it was mispronounced. (Where I have {wa'}, the actor actually said something like {wawa}, which might've been {wav}.) -- De'vID