Science friction for Star Wars Day!

Tell your uncle if he gets a translator, be sure it speaks Bocce.

Beru Whitesun Lars, Star Wars Episode IV, “A New Hope”

In honour of C-3PO, to whom Bocce was like a second language, I was originally going to write this post in that language… but it would seem that on this planet it’s known only as a variant of the French game ‘boules’.

According to Wookieepedia, there are only four known words in Bocce: Jettoz (‘hello’), keezk (‘yes’), nokeezx (‘no’) and zanki (‘thank you’). Oh, and one phrase: wox ho uffdon comda (‘you go and shut down now’). So, that would make a pretty short post. Maybe more of the language can be found; but that would have to be a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….

As I was keen to create something a tad longer than a couple of fingers fewer than a double-handful of words (that together make no sense at all anyway), I thought I’d resort to a language that is (perhaps) rather better known in this neck of the woods:

Yes, you read that right: Klingon!

English (DIvI’ Hol)

tlhIngan Hol

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It’s a trap!

vonwI’ ‘oH

Admiral Ackbar warns, “It’s a trap!” (in Klingon)
Image by mupwI’ (used with permission)

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Stay on target… stay on target… loosen up!

DoS yIbuS… DoS yIbuS… yIjot‘eghmoH!

Kaley Cuoco as Penny in The Big Bang Theory,
explaining the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek

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Do… or do not. There is no ‘try’.

yIta’ pagh yIta’be’ nID tu’lu’be’

Yoda’s classic line from Star Wars (in Klingon)
Image by mupwI’ (used with permission)

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Kill one of them. I don’t care which.

wa’ yIHoH jISaHbe’

Christopher Lloyd demonstrating his awesome versatility
(although he arguably fluffed his line here)

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Revenge is a dish that is best served cold.

bortaS bIr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’

Ricardo Montalbán as Khan, the evil genius

Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper, the loony genius

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Live long and suck it!

yIn nI’ yISIQ ‘ej targhlIj yIngagh yIruch

Wil Wheaton delivering his “Live long and suck it!” line on ‘The Big Bang Theory’

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May the Force be with you.

Dutlhejjaj yIn Hoschem‘a’

Han Solo offering the traditional blessing (in Klingon)
Image by mupwI’ (used with permission)

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I would like to offer my humongous thanks to mupwI’ for allowing me to use his Klingon Star Wars meme images (he has a whole bunch more of them!), and to the Klingon Language Institute (KLI) and the friendly community on the KLI Discord server for suffering my dumb n👀b questions about Klingon grammar while working on this post! (And, no, I’m not even going to attempt to try to translate that.)