This is not a conventional blog, but a story, written in tlhIngan Hol, the language devised by Marc Okrand for the Klingons on Star Trek. Klingons are fictional, but the language is real, and I write stories in it. The title means "What is the song about?"
The story is divided into 'ay'mey (parts) of about 200-300 words each, with a few longer because that was what the scene required. Every ten to twenty or sometimes more 'ay'mey, a new 'ay''a' (perhaps "volume" would be a good translation) starts. In most cases the point of view character shifts with the volume change, but there are a couple of transitions mid 'ay''a'. At the end of 'ay''a'mey one through four are summaries in simple Klingon, plus there are daily teaser recaps and summaries in English on the SKImey (Summary for the Klingon Impaired) page. If you don't know any Klingon, this page, that one, and many of the footnotes are the only things that you will be able to read, but you can gaze in curiosity at the diagrams on some of the other supplemental pages.
You can see all the 'ay'mey of a particular 'ay''a' in order on one page by clicking on its arabic numeral in the sidebar under 'ay''a'mey. That's how I recommend you navigate if you intend to read it.
One of my goals with the story is to show the power of the language. tIqraj vIchu' vIneH I said. That can mean "I want to activate your heart" or perhaps "I want to play your heartstrings." Some of the chapters will depict sexual activity, or detailed violence or both. The protagonists are mainly Klingons, after all. I'm trying to go there, for all values of there, to show that Klingon is limited by the writer's imagination and not the vocabulary.
I welcome all comments and suggestions whether on typos, errors, vocabulary choices, continuity errors, plot, characters, or what-have-you. This started in September 2011 and took about a year. The ending is not online, but if you read that far I'll be happy to send it to you. It needs editing and then will likely be published by the Klingon Language Institute.
If you want to learn tlhIngan Hol you can get a good start with The Klingon Dictionary by Marc Okrand. You can't just look up the words, because Klingon doesn't work that way. You'll have to learn the grammar, too. And as Marc keeps adding to the vocabulary you won't know all the words in this story just from the dictionary. You'll need Klingon for the Galactic Traveler and other sources. An online list of new words to 2005 is here, and a superbly annotated update list for words since is being compiled here.
My other Klingon blog, lately mostly about Klingon language in popular culture, but also sometimes about other languages is at http://bologh.blogspot.com.
