A Revised Discussion of the Kilrathi Language

capi3101

Admiral
Howdy, y'all. Long post ahead.

Back in 2009, forum member WCX began a discussion with the purpose of breaking down the meaning behind the fragments of the Kilrathi language that have appeared in various sources of WC canon (including the games and novels). That particular discussion, entitled "Dissecting the Kilrathi Language" ran from December 2009 through April 2010 (a little over a year before I started frequenting the CIC forums regularly; about the time StarflightRPG was going to print in my personal life). For the past several weeks as part of my work on the WCRPG Elegy campaign (which has the ultimate goal of having a main story set from a Kilrathi perspective), I've found myself increasingly in need of words from the Kilrathi language in an effort to improve the campaign's "flavor" and as a way of hoping to improve the level of immersion going on. When I could not find the word for "school" in Kilrathi, I ran a search of the forums to see if I could come up with any translations, and came across the original thread during the process. As my need for Kilrathi words has increased, I began an effort to continue the translation work. This has been going on for a few weeks now, and at this point I've completed about as much of the translation work as I can from my own perspective. I'd like to continue the discussion with y'all, let y'all know what I've come up with, get your opinions and see if there's anything I haven't thought of (and should've). To that end, I've started this thread rather than commit some rather heinous thread necromancy.

Alright. So. A caveat - language is not my strong suit. It's been a very long time since I've actively studied linguistics and IIRC I didn't do so well back then, so please feel free to contradict me on anything. I want opinions (though I do ask that those who contribute to this discussion to please explain their logic). Also, I don't give a flying rat's fart about a Kilrathi syllabry or glyphs or any of that nonsense - I want to talk about the language itself. Sources for Kilrathi words and phrases include CIC itself, WCPedia and a legacy Aces Club page (this has largely the same list as the CIC page, but the translations are different in spots; I've simply been taking those as another interpretation of the phrases.

I've mainly been continuing to use the concept of metathesis that WCX was using in the original thread - i.e. the notion that a slight change in a word would result in a different word that has a similar concept. I have a prime example of what I'm talking about which I'll discuss first. For right now, though, let's go over what WCX had translated in the original thread:

===========
LEXICON:
n’ikh = I / me / my
Nik’hra = my people
Ek'rah = Us / we people

-'hra / -'ra = persons / people (suffix referring to an unknown number of people)

ki'ha = Are / being
Ha = must
H'as = Will/shall
Ra = of/for (possession indicator partial)
Ras = of / for
Ta = for
Huma = this
Humas = that
Gar = They / These
Garga = Them / Those
-ga = emphatic /augmentative suffix
Duka = on /at / toward (action or destination indicator)
Erg = to / in / at / by (indirect object or direction marker)
Maks = and (some kind of linking word or connector)

Va = Not / no (a negative adverb or adjective)
-av = suffix to make a noun or a verb the negative form.
K’- = prefix denoting the absence or lack of something
-i = genitive case marker (?)
–s = final suffix acting as some kind of accusative / intensifier (?)

rakra = Attacked by / Engaged in combat with
tr'- = battle / struggle
kn' = Dark / nothing/ void
Thrak = Great / ultimate / noble / final / top.
Kal = lord / senior
-ar / -ahr = leader / active
Shint = ship
Khant = fleet
Kalral = sector
trathkh = tongues
hyilgh = assistant (?)
takh = equal (?)
Kil = person
Lerk = Drug / Chemical
Kalk = Torture
Rath = interrogation / question/ dominance
rakh = honor / honorable
K’rakh = dishonorable
Naru = spill / spilt
'nigath = a gift or present, presented from one to another.
Ka' = blood / (Spirit )
Tagu = “Suicide attack” / kamikaze (noun or adjective)
Rag'nith = Empire / Emperor
Agon = Glory / praise / honor.

Uncertain translation:
aiy'hra = enemies (?)
tugaga = launch / engage in
haganaska = assault
Krah- = very (?)
Nakh = doom / demise (?)
Ghayeer = unseen / sudden (?)
rash’ = wish/desire (?)
Ja’lra = An interrogative of some kind (“why”) (?)

“Dak” and “hath”
One means “Death/Killing” and the other “Stroke/Blow”.

“kir’kha” and “k’har”
One means “swear/vow” and the other “reclaim/avenge”.

Other translations:
drak = guard / guardian
Dork = Transport
Kam = Corvettes / Blockade Runners
Ral = Destroyer
Fral = Crusier
-ek / ekh = speed
-rani = cannon / weapon / firepower (?)
-ari = escort/auxiliary/support
“-arrad” = scout / light / small /agile / nimble (?)
“-axath” = Heavy / big (?)

NAME _ FAMILY dai EXTENDED FAMILY lak BLOODLINE nar CLAN
nar = of the clan
dai = of the hrai
lak = extended family/bloodline
jaq = lesser variant of dai
laq = non-noble toponym
ko = locative
lan = a form of mastery
===========

Alright. I have some issues with a few of these translations; we'll get into them as the discussion continues.
 
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Deriving the Kilrathi word for School

As I mentioned earlier, this whole effort got started with a search for the Kilrathi word for school - which, after much thought, I believe is igdai. That seems like a good place to start.

Here's my line of thought on igdai. It began with the known title for the Sacred History of the Clans:
ikgara kutgaga = Sacred History of the Clans (from False Colors, unless I'm mistaken)
I chose to break that phrase up as ik/ga/ra kut/ga/ga.

From the original translations, two components of both words jumped out:
-ga = emphatic / augmentative suffix
-ra = persons / people (suffix referring to an unknown number of people)

From that, I took the word kutgaga to mean "sacred" due to the double augmentative; it'd be like saying an object is "very very" something. If you look up the word "sacred" in Wiktionary, you get its origin from the Middle English "to make holy, hallow". Most of the origins of the word "holy" in turn mean something like "whole" or "pure", which is what I take the meaning of kut to be - compare it to the known Kilrathi word utak (privy worker). You see that same ut in both words - the "k" component can be compared to WCX's translation K’-, a prefix denoting the absence or lack of something. If ut can be translated as "dirt" or "filth", kut becomes "without dirt" or "without filth", i.e. pure or whole. Thus kutgaga - extremely pure, i.e. sacred.

Which of course leaves ikgara to mean "history of the clans". Here I'm thinking the translation is not entirely accurate - we have that "-ra" suffix at the end, which by WCX means persons/people. I take it to mean "people" in this case, which would make a more literal translation be "history of the people" (if it really said "of the clans", you'd logically expect there to be a nar in there somewhere - ikganar, not ikgara). Which means leaves ikga to mean "history". Once again going to Wiktionary, the earliest root of the word "history" (from the Proto-Indo-Eurpoean) means "wit" or "knowledge". Since ga is an emphatic, I take ik to mean "knowledge / to know" (and thus ikga becomes more literally something like "great knowledge")

Why is this important to igdai? Well, my original word for school was ikdai = "knowledge house", but I later thought that would be a more apt translation for the word "library" instead. I knew of the word Igrathi - one of the worlds of the Kilrah star system - and via metathesis thought that perhaps ig would be a related concept to ik. In this case, the related concept would be "learning / to learn" (thus igdai = "learning house"). That's purely speculative, but it fits the logic I think (it'd make sense if igrathi was a reference to some kind of pagan Kilrathi deity - that's certainly what the planets in our own solar system are named for - though that may be too human of a line of thought).

Igrathi = ig/rath/i = learning/to learn - question / dominate - possessive/plural. Perhaps "they who learn to dominate?" or "dominate's learning"? Sounds like a pagan god to me...

Dai = house - I skipped over that one, didn't I? Here's my line of thought on dai:
I'll admit, I've been referencing the Klingon Dictionary a bit during my work on the Kilrathi language, mainly just as a means of figuring out what elements should be present. Why the Klingon Dictionary? It's mainly because it's written on a relatively simple level - it's designed for Trekkies in general, not just for those Trekkies who also happen to be linguists. There's also similarities in the two cultures, with both the Klingons and the Cats renowned for their warrior prowess. That said, I've been extraordinarily careful to keep the two distinct, because as the Klingons would say:

tlhingan Qilranganbe'

It can be readily shown that Kilrathi has more potential sounds in it than the Klingon language anyway. But I digress.

No, dai meaning house actually comes from the proposed extended naming structure WCX came up with:
NAME _ FAMILY dai EXTENDED FAMILY lak BLOODLINE nar CLAN

I noted the similarity between dai and another well-established Kilrathi word, hrai = family (as has many a WC fan familiar with both Freedom Flight and False Colors), and thought to myself "what if this is yet another example of metathesis at work in the Kilrathi language"? That is to say, hrai and dai are related words that have similar yet differing concepts. I then thought to myself "if hrai means "family" (or possibly "my people" from "hra" people and "i" the genetive marker), what would be a possible related concept for dai"?
hrai = "my people"
dai = "my (related concept)"

And suddenly my forehead grew ridges, my mind shouted "Qapla'!!!" and I wrote down dai = house (my hall / building). I hate to say it but that one's totally Klingon, and yet it makes sense if you think about it. Furthermore, it served by purpose for coming up with a word for "school".

Related terms -
igdai = school
kal igdai = senior school (perhaps a secondary level institution)
thrakigdai = university / academy (i.e. "great school")

ikdai = library
ikgadai = hall of records ("great knowledge house")

kutgadai sivar = Temple of Sivar
thrakutgadai sivar = Great Temple of Sivar

churhadai = museum
vraxdai = brothel
ukdai = restaurant
 
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Jumping, Leaping, Springing...

One of the translations that was left uncertain from the original thread was this one; it kinda bothered me:
“Dak” and “hath” - One means “Death/Killing” and the other “Stroke/Blow”.

As I was going through the CIC list of words though, I came across this gem:
dor-chak = striking bird (a name of a Kilrathi assault rifle from the Confederation Handbook).

I immediately noticed the similarity between the words dak and chak, and thought "here might be another example of metathesis", in this case a conjugated verb. Chak as "striking" makes sense when you compare it to this word from the list:
chakta = A prisoner who deserves honorable execution.

If you go with the earlier translation of ta = for and you say chak = striking, you get the translation "for striking". Sounds apt. Therefore dak is probably stroke / blow. In other words:
dak = stroke / blow
chak = striking
hath = death / kill
dor = bird

The idea of the Crown Prince of Kilrathi's name meaning "great death" or "great kill", or perhaps "Great Killer" sounds right. The closest analog would be the name "Louis" (from the Germanic meaning "famous warrior"). Crown Prince Louie of the Clan Kiranka......

I haven't translated kiranka yet, but I'm close (k-/ir/an/ka). I bet it turns out to be equally lame in the end.

Well, I got to looking at some other words on the list and noted these from Action Stations:
jak-ta / jak-tu = surprise attack
jak-ta ga = a cry of success during an attack.

And I thought to my self "there's that word jak there - it's similar to dak and chak. I wonder if we have yet again more metathesis going on there." This one was trickier, because we already had ga as an emphatic and ta was translated earlier as "for", a preposition". But then we also have this phrase:

Kilrah Tugaga Jak-Ta Haganaska duka McAuliffe
= Kilrah launches a surprise attack on McAuliffe.

This was another one that WCX left with a uncertain translation - he had:
tugaga = launch / engage in
haganaska = assault

I'm actually inclined to think those words are the other way around, i.e. tugaga = assault and haganaska = launch / engage. Why? Well, we see tu in a couple of other places, such as:
koractu = a type of sword
tuhaga = The day celebrating the creation of the Empire of Kilrah (another emphatic there).
tuka = One who displays hesitation or weakness (with ka already translated as blood / spirit, as in kaga)

tugaga has that double emphatic again (just like kutgaga), so tu is a concept that has been emphasized greatly. I can see that more readily with some kind of "fight" than I can some kind of "launch", and thus I take tu to mean "fight" or "skirmish" (which makes tuka an interesting insult - "skirmish blood", which either implies that the person it's directed towards only has the stomach for minor battles, or may be an identifiable use of sarcasm in the Kilrathi language).

Well, that leaves jak to mean "surprise". If it's indeed an instance of metathesis with a concept similar to striking (as with dak and chak), a possible translation becomes "to pounce / spring upon". Again, it makes sense.

Now, lak has been translated as "bloodline" and I'm cool with that, but if it is yet again another form of metathesis, another possible translation becomes "springs from". That one's speculative.

You've also got another honorific that sounds similar to jak - jaq. WCX translated that as a lesser variant of dai, used by one officer in False Colors. I will submit that jaq is actually a sign of illegitimacy - that its meaning is something akin to "sprang from" (perhaps "came from", as in "Figaro came from the milkman").

And then there's bak, meaning "a fellow hunter" or "bad taste." Again, metathesis may apply here - I've taken that word to mean "hunt / to hunt" (considering also it appears in the name Baktosh Redclaw. I've still yet to figure out how exactly that's supposed to relate to old diapers...

Well guys, I think that's the last of the discussion I'll do this fine morning. I'll see where I am and figure out where to go from here - I've got loads more. Meantime, feel free to discuss.
 
Drinks, Drinks and yet Moar Drinks

One of the very first words from the Kilrathi that I needed for WCRPG was "community" or "city"; that of course was for the names of the places of birth of those Kilrathi indicated in the Who's Who in the game's core rules. At that time, I had only access to one translation that had a concept even remotely close. What term was that, do you ask? This one:

brajakh kar = fortress of the dark

At the time, I took brajakh to mean "fortress" and ran with it without much consideration of whether or not that was right. I also took the term ikgara to mean "sacred" (which I've already demonstrated is completely wrong) and co-opted the Green Lantern word qith'rak = "blade" to be another word for "street" or "circle" (as in the old streets of Kyoto - the closer you lived or were born to the Palace, the better; this in turn required a numbering system and I just co-opted the Latin for that purpose as did the writers of Voices of War). I made a whole bunch of place names off of those concepts and ran with it.

With this whole process, I actually think my original assumption of brajakh = "fortress" was correct. Why? Metathesis again...compare brajakh to these terms:
ak'rah = a bush native to Kilrah.
arakh = A popular intoxicant, often used to make tea.
harakh = "not food for a warrior", also translated as "shit".
jirak = A ceremonial herbal brew.
utak = privy worker, the lowest caste of Kilrathi society.
vak'qu = a drink.
xark = The fresh blood of the ancient main pray species.

Each of them have a component of ak or akh (note in particular that the ones that definitely refer to something that can be drank - arakh, jirak and vak'qu). From that context, I've made this association:
ak/akh = water / drink.

That one was mainly due to arakh, which I broke down as ar/akh. We have the earlier translation of ar as "lead "or "active". "Lead drink", "Active Drink", "Lead Water" or "Active Water" all don't really make a whole lot of sense, but as I came across more inanimate terms that used the ar component, I realized that perhaps it would make more sense if I made the term ever so slightly more general:
ar = primary

Thus arakh = "primary drink". In most ancient human cultures, it was considered safer to drink the wine than the water.

Where does that leave us with brajakh? Well, if you break it down to braj/akh, you have the ak/akh = "water/drink" component. I thus make this association:

braj = safe / walled / fortified

And this brajakh becomes something akin to "safe water". One of the key components when considering where to build a community on Earth is the availability of fresh water - and on a volcanic world like Kilrah, finding suitable sources of fresh drinking water would be all the more important. They'd be the only places where communities could begin, IMHO...

What about the other words in that list above...well, jirak can be broken down as either ji/ir/ak or j-/ir/ak. Since it appears to be some manner of tea, I make the following associations:
j- = some kind of color modifier (perhaps green).
ji = fire (I'm just now making this association with this word - I had ji = "fire" from a different source, which I'll have to discuss in a later post)
ir = plant / blossom
ak/akh = water / drink
And thus jirak either means "green blossom water" or "fire blossom drink". I don't know which I like better...

ir = "plant / blossom", you say? Yep. Compare to birha. Then compare to snakeir...(I'm still trying to break down snake but ir as "blossom" for a carrier name sounds poetic).

Utak. There's a fun one...you get "filthy water" if you break that down, certainly an apt name for where people from that caste spend most of their working hours.

ak'rah is kind of an odd one; I'm not actually sure that the ak/akh = water / drink translation works well for it. For that one, I looked at the word kilrah, breaking it down into the components of kil/rah. Now, the component kil = "person"/ individual actually comes from False Colors; WCX didn't particularly like that one as I recall in light of -hra/-ra = persons and I don't particularly like it either, but I'll run with it. We all know that Kilrah is the name of the Kilrathi homeworld, and so my first thought was rah = "planet", but that flies in the face of nak'tara = "the planet Earth", with tara being a rather obvious (and unnecessary in light of terran'hra = Terran persons; see the original thread) rendering of "Terra", another name for Earth. nak' therefore becomes "planet". So my next thought was:
rah = home / world

And thus akrah becomes something like "water of home" or "drink of home". Perhaps in context it means "taste of home"; the Green Lantern site indicates that "planting ak’rah bushes has the subtle meaning of 'planting the flag' and 'conquest' to the Kilrathi", so that may be the best translation (of course, this is one of the terms that particular site indicates as "Aces Derived", so I have to question that interpretation, but it does make sense).

harakh - I'm still translating this one. Since its meaning is "shit", it lead me to another translation (on the subject of cursing):
vraxar = fuck (With vrax meaning "fuck/to fuck" by itself. There's another concept I've been using here, the notion of -x as a "corruptive" element, which I may need to discuss in yet another post. There's ar = "primary" again - which come to think of it may be a euphemism at play.....)
And of course from vraxar = "fuck" came the notion of vraxdai = "brothel" (i.e. "fuck house")

I had originally had har in harakh to mean "dirty" (thus "dirty water"), but har doesn't share much in common with the term ut = "filth"; metathesis working against me here. It might mean something akin to "piss", or it could simply be a term for feces in and of itself. Without much else to compare it against, that may be the best translation. Kirha was talking about beef stew at the time; calling it "shit water" would absolutely make sense in that case (depending on the brand of course...).

I'm also still translating vak'qu and xark, though I'm reasonably confident that xark is an example of a clipped word in Kilrathi. Why? I break it down like this:
x = corrupted concept indicator (I'm going to have to get into this one sooner rather than later, looks like)
ka = blood / spirit (thus xa = "weak blood", or perhaps "spilled blood")
ar = primary
akh = water/ drink
If it carries the meaning of "primary drink (made from) the spilled blood (of the main prey species)", the components would probably line up as xa'arakh, which could then conceivably be clipped down to xark. That's speculative, but it makes sense.

vak'qu is difficult to translate because I haven't come across any other instances of qu in the language. The first part of the word, vak, could conceivably be broken down as va/ak - which then becomes "not drink". I hesitantly say that qu = "unless", though there's nothing really to support that supposition. The term itself comes from Voices of War and drinking it seems to induce hallucinatory hunting imagery to a Kilrathi (the reference is on page 15 of VOW for those who are interested), so perhaps there's a warning involved there - "don't drink this unless you want to trip out" or some such. A definitive meaning may become more apparent as I delve further into the language with time; no doubt metathesis is at work here, because the letter q appears very infrequently in the language (jaq and qith'rak being the only other two instances I know about).
 
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Doing Stuff

I'm going to kick this next post off with the following suffix translations:
-il / -al / -a = creature which does/thing which does/one that does

What support do I have for these suppositions, you say? Fair enough...

We encounter al in a couple of places in the language:
fa'orc'al = A banner awarded to pilots by the Emperor.
kal = lord / senior
puckal = Annual ritual of atonement.
rugalga = Semi-intelligent heard beast native to Kilrah
sczaltal = Fly native to Kilrah.

Il is rarer:
traggil = A prey species, caught in traps.
hyilghar = staff lieutenant
kil = person

A as a suffix is fairly common, though usually it's coupled with other ideas. Here are three examples where I think the suffix meaning applies:
kabaka = Heroic death.
ulanna = Tree native to Kilrah.
Ratha = a proper name (elder son of Gilkarg)

So let's start off with kal. I've chosen to break it down as ka/al rather than k-/al simply because k' has already been translated as "absence / lack of something", and if -al means "one who does" you wind up with kal = "one who does not", which doesn't really fit the concept for a word translated as "lord" (unless you see it as somebody who has others to do all their work for them). No, I see it as ka = blood / spirit + -al = one that does, and thus kal = "one that bleeds". This seems more apt; a group of warriors will readily flock to the banner of one who is willing to bleed for them.

fa'orc'al is pretty much broken down for us and represents yet another instance of metathesis -
fa = courage / bravery (based on ka = blood / spirit)
-al = thing which does
And I believe then that orc = "stand / place / mark" (based on the origin of the word "standard" as in a flag or banner). Thus "thing that marks bravery" or "thing that marks courage".

I choose to break down the word puckal into elements of pu/ka/al, with the "c" serving merely as an Anglicization. You thus then have -
pu = atone / reunite / reconcile
kal = one that bleeds / lord / senior
Thus it becomes something like "one that bleeds for reconciliation". This word can be compared to another act of reconciliation we're all familar with in Kilrathi culture - zu'kara., which I break down as:
zu = redeem / repent
ka = blood/spirit
-ra = person
Thus "a person who redeems (themselves) by blood".
I'm surmising the difference between the concepts of puckal and zu'kara is one of degrees; puckal indicates the desire to kill oneself in order to achieve reconciliation for one's honor, while zu'kara means actually going through with it. Puckal may also entail more of a concept of saving face rather than necessarily saving honor. And of course we know it applies when killing oneself becomes detrimental to the good of the whole - such as when someone shakes your whole damn planet apart and suddenly you're needed for the purpose of continuing the species...

I had rugalga translated as ru = feeds + ga = emphatic + -al = creature which does + ga = emphatic, but I'm not sure about ru = feeds since it's substantially different from uk = prey / food. In light of pu = atone / reunite / reconcile, I'm thinking instead that ru might mean "satisfy / satiate". Thus rugalga = "creature that really satisfies (the stomach) very well".

I don't have a translation for sczaltal though I'm pretty sure it's another example of a clipped word. Any ideas there would be appreciated; I'm struggling with the double -al.

I'm getting tired and cranky at this point, so let me just go through the rest of the words really fast:
traggil = tr/agg/il = battle/struggle + trap / snare (supported by haggin) + creature which does = creature (that) struggles (with a) trap.
hyilghar is one I don't have translated yet. At best I have hyilgh = absence / in lieu of + ar = primary; further work is necessary.
kabaka = ka/bak/a = blood/spirit + hunt + one who does = one who hunts (with) the spirits
ulanna = ul/lan/a = sleep/rest (supposition) + place / locative + one who does = place where one rests
Ratha = rath/a = question / dominate + one who does = one who dominates (i.e. conqueror - an apt name for a Kilrathi if there ever was one).
 
Phrase Sandwiches (With Sriracha Sauce)

I've noted some interesting words in the Kilrathi language that follow a "sandwich" pattern, where the same set of letters exists on both ends surrounding something else:
chee'dyachee = Senior retainer. (Wing Commander III Novelization)
gatagak'vu = Total annihilation. (Fleet Action)
hrashra (from Wing Commander II - and for which there is no given translation)

Let's begin with chee'dyachee, which I would break down as chee/dya/chee.
The term chee appears in one other spot in the CIC/WCPedia list:
kaschee = A ceremonial scarf.
You can break this term down into ka/-s/chee = (blood + accusative suffix) + chee. I'm thinking the -s changes ka = "blood/spirit" to kas = "bloody", thus:

chee = cloth / scarf.

And a rough translation of kaschee becomes "bloody scarf".

Where does that put us with chee'dyachee? Well, we know its a term for the senior retainer, a high ranking toady. Here's where I'll ask y'all to do some leg work: go back and look at the opening sequence of WC2, and note the Emperor, Thrakhath and Khasra's clothing. The Emperor and Thrakhath are wearing cloaks, but Khasra is not. Then look at the opening Locanda cinematic from WC3 and note that Melek is wearing a cloak. I'm thinking there's some significance in that; you don't have to go very far into human literature to note the concept of a royal standard bearer, or perhaps an armor-bearer. It's basically the notion of a trusted confidant and advisor whose job it is to prepare a royal or nobleman for combat, and/or to hold their flag or marker during battle (hell, you can see that in most Disney flicks). This all leads me to make this set of translations:

chee = cloak.
dya = hold / bear / carry
chee'dyachee = cloak + hold / bear / carry + cloak = "cloak-bearer (who wears a) cloak".

(Note that in WC4, Melek isn't wearing a cloak).

Only trouble I have with this whole translation is that I don't know where the term kaschee comes from. I'm assuming the Confederation Handbook, but if someone could help me out there, I'd sure appreciate it.

Anyway, let's move on to gatagak'vu = "total annihilation". Most of this has actually already been translated:
ga = augmentative/emphatic
k' = prefix denoting absence or lack of something.
ta = for (preposition).
vu = ?.

You can break that phrase down to ga/ta/ga/k'/vu, and get emphatic/augmentative + for + emphatic/augmentative + absence/lack of + vu. Given the meaning of the phrase, I take vu to mean either "life" or "survival" (and thus k'vu becomes "absence of life" or "lack of survival", i.e. death). Another possible meaning for vu is "anything", though I'm leaning towards the life/survival translation.

Here we have an interesting case wherein the term ga = emphatic/augmentative is used 1) without modifying anything and 2) to modify a preposition. If we're go with the assumption that gataga means "total", then I'll submit that when used by itself, ga has a meaning of something akin to "all". Thus, gataga = "all for all". I'm still trying to work out the significance of why it's presented as gataga and not tagaga - perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there is a preposition in the center there ("very very for" or "big big for", which is what tagaga would literally mean given what's been translated to date, makes little sense).

Given vu = life / survival, I take the term gu = kill / death via metathesis. Thus you have:
tagugar = kamikaze = ta/gu/ga/ar = for + kill / death + emphatic/augmentative + primary = "(one who) leads for great killing"
ka-tagu = An honorific title = ka/ta/gu = blood + (for + kill / death) = "blood of (one who died) for killing"
sa'guk = Dead to ones hrai, even though you still live. = sa/gu/uk = sa + (kill / death + food/prey) = sa + "dead meat"
I still haven't got a good translation for sa, though I'm leaning towards a meaning along the lines of "already" given the context. It might be related to ka, but I can't think of anything that fits.

Since this discussion is already longer than I intended, let's move on to the last phrase - hrashra. This is part of the phrase:
Kilrath'ra rakh, walhi drathrik. Hrashra ni'lakh rakhta. Fralkra himekh TCS Concordia, coordinates 234576, 376867.
This of course is when Comm Tech McGuffin bites Jazz's bullet relatively early in WC2.

I'm going to focus on the second sentence for purposes of this discussion but I'd be remiss not to at least discuss the phrase as a whole. The first sentence, Kilrath'ra rakh, walhi drathrik, I take as some manner of greeting (WCX already translated kilrath'ra rakh = "honorable Kilrathi persons", leaving walhi drathrik untranslated). The last sentence, Fralkra himekh TCS Concordia...is obviously Jazz telling the Cats where he can find Concordia so they can blow it up and the last bit is in English so that the player knows thats what's going on.

Iincidentally, I take the phrase fralkra himekh to either mean "carrier" or "dreadnought" and I'm leaning towards "dreadnought", due to the elements fral/kra = cruiser + kra and hi/(ma/ekh) = hi + (measure of + speed). I have seen examples where dreadnoughts or battlecruisers - hey, just typing this, perhaps fralkra means "battlecruiser" (fral + rakra?) - anyway, I've seen examples where a dreadnought was referred to as a "fast heavy cruiser", so this might make sense.

So we have the second sentence: Hrashra ni'lakh rakhta.
There are some elements here that have been translated already:
hra = persons/people
rakh = honor
ta = for.

Now, before we get into hrashra, let's take a look at the second word, ni'lakh. You can compare this to n’ikh = I / me and nik’hra = my people - the ni' portion appears to be a first person singular possessive prefix. Also notice the similarity between lakh and lak = "bloodline". I submit the following translation based on that similarity:

lakh = ancestors (thus ni'lakh = my ancestors)

You see the same term in the phrase kamekh ni'lakh, ki'ha rakra Terran'ra, which WCX translated in the original thread as "This is the fast corvette Ni'lakh, we are under attack by Terran persons". He took ni'lakh to be the name of the ship - a Kilrathi ship named "My ancestors" makes some measure of sense, given the importance of honoring one's family in that culture. A translation that would make more sense would be "Our ancestors", but given that WCX also translated ek'rah = we people, the ek' prefix would appear to indicate the first person plural (which would suggest the proper phrase for "our ancestors" is ek'lakh.)

Rakhta is "for honor" (rakh/ta = honor + for), so we have for the sentence so far:

hrashra + "my ancestors" + "for honor". We wind up with a rough translation of "(something) for honoring my ancestors".

Now for hrashra. I include it in this discussion by breaking it down as hra/s/hra = (people + accusative suffix) + people.
Another possible breakdown is hra/ras/hra = people + of/for + people.

Neither makes much sense, but from the context I take hrashra to be an expression of appreciation, perhaps "thank you" - the sentence becomes "Thank you for honoring my ancestors (by permitting me to commit treason and have a bunch of these worthless pricks killed in the process because I'm a traitorous bastard"). Or perhaps "I thank you people for honoring my ancestors". There may be another concept hidden within hrashra (hra/shra?), but without more of the language to compare against, I haven't got much else to go on. At best this is a subjective translation, but for now I'll run with it.

walhi drathrik - I wonder what that could possibly mean...
 
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Oh, What the Hell Am I Going to Talk About Tonight?

I really haven't got a clue. What the hell...we'll try ship and fighter names, I guess. For the sake of minimizing the discussion, we'll just go with single instances of each name (that way we don't wind up trying to translate Dralthi nine times.

Keep in mind that I'm making this crap up as I go tonight; I really don't have a discussion ready to go.

So we have our ships from WC1: Salthi, Dralthi, Krant, Gratha, Jalthi, Dorkir, Ralari, Fralthi, and for good measure we'll throw in the Hhriss, Sivar and Snakeir.
WC2 you've got the Sartha, Drakhri, Jalkehi, Grikath, Strakha, Gothri, Bloodfang, Dorkathi, Kamekh, Ralatha, and Fralthra.
Academy adds the Jrathek.
Armada adds the Shok'lar, Kor-larh, Goran and Shiraak.
WC3 has the Darket, Vaktoth, Paktahn, Sorthak, K'ha'haf, Ekapshi, Kamrani, Ralarrad, Ralaxath, Bhantkara and Hvar'kann.
And Arena adds Kiranka.

First, let's knock out an easy one: Bloodfang. That one's English. Duh. As best as I can tell, the closest Kilrathi equivalent would either be kanagga or kanalga (blood + (tooth + augmentative)), and I lean towards kanalga. The term nagga itself is dubious - I'm not sure if it actually appears or not anywhere in the canon (and yet that's the one I went with in the core rules; what I get for not checking the source first there). Nalga is a creature mentioned in Fleet Action with "claws longer than your arm" and that has four heads. Assuming the Cats are referencing one of those two features, I'm not sure if the Kilrathi are referring to the creature's claws or their teeth. The teeth have cultural significance and there's evidence to support the notion that the Kilrathi word for claw is naj (from Najji "Fireclaw" nar Ragitagha - if the given name is another example of a literal translation). Certainly via metathesis there are some similar concepts at work in any case.

Krant is another easy one. Compare to shint (ship), khant (fleet), and for that matter bhant (as in Bhantkara) - the -nt suffix suggests either "craft" or "vehicle". We established kra as meaning either "battle" or "attack" in the previous post (via the word fralkra, if you'll recall; I think I came to the realization that kra could mean "attack" after that post via the word rakra = "are being attacked by" = ra + kra, instead of rak + ra). So krant would mean "battle craft" or "attack craft", or more simply put - "fighter". It's a medium fighter design described as "the Kilrathi workhorse", so that makes sense.

Alright - trickier ones. Gratha I take to have a literal meaning of "massive land", breaking down as gra + tha. Gra = "mass" comes from the term gramma = gra + ma = mass + measure/sum, a term from Voices of War. Tha as "land/region" is subjective, but I have noted it in such terms as warach tha (Kurasawa) and ghorax tha (a pleasure world in Charon) - we already have nak = "planet" and rah = "world / home", and since tha appears in location names, it's probably a related term, hence "land/region". Only problem there is that it makes absolutely no sense for a fighter name...perhaps it implies "heavy ground (attack craft)" or something of that nature.

Dorkir = dor + k- + ir = bird + ? + plant/blossom. If k is taken as a form of k' = absence/lack of, the translation becomes "bird + (lack of + plant/blossom)", perhaps meaning "young bird" or "nestling". I like the notion of kir = "youth" to be honest...kirha becomes "be young" - a common Terran equivalent is "Colin". So now we have Crown Prince Louie and Colin of the family of Hunter of the clan Aussie...

Where was I...oh yeah, ship names. I was just thinking of k'har = k'/har = absence/lack of + shit / feces = "(take) no shit", and whether that was closer to "swear/vow" or "reclaim/avenge" in light of kir = "youth" and the other untranslated Shari nar Hhallas term, kir'kha. and with khant meaning "fleet". Total digression - but that one's been bugging me for a while.

How's about we move into the -thi series of craft: Salthi, Dralthi, Jalthi, Fralthi, Dorkathi. Dorkathi is probably the one I've got translated most so far - dor/ka/thi = bird + blood + ?. The others have that -al = "thing which does" element to them:
fralthi = fra/-al/thi = (cruise + thing which does) + thi = cruiser + thi (fral = cruiser was one of WCX's translations)
salthi = sa/-al/thi = (already + thing which does) + thi - I'm really questioning the notion of sa = "already" (from sa'guk) at this point.
dralthi = dra/-al/thi = (? + thing which does) + thi
jalthi
= ja/-al/thi = (? + thing which does) + thi

I'm trying to think of what three fighters, a transport class and a cruiser class might have in common. The best I can come up with is:
-thi = class/type

Thus dorkathi = "blood bird-class" and fralthi = "cruiser-class"
And the others become a bit more open to interpretation. For jalthi, I think that the initial component may either be ji or ja. I've translated ji="fire", so ja may easily be a related concept; perhaps ji = fire (rapid oxidation) and ja = fire (a gun/weapon). Thus jalthi = "fires guns-type"; makes sense on a fighter with six guns.
For the Dralthi, we might have a variation on drak = "guard" (a translation from the original thread used to find a meaning for drakhai) at work, or it could be clipping at work. "Escort-type" or "Guardian-type" works as a translation for the name of the fighter (since the Krant is the workhorse).
Leaving salthi, a light fighter . Working on the notion of (? + thing which does) + craft, sa could carry a meaning of something like "scout/recognize", thus "scouting-type" or "reconnaisance-type". That would also fit in with the notion of sa'guk = "recognized as dead meat". Then you wind up with sartha = sa/ar/tha = scout + primary + land = "main surveyor of the landscape" or some such (makes more sense than "already first land").

Lessee...Ralari = ral/ar/-i = destroyer + primary/first + possessive/plural = "my principal destroyer". That works.
Drakhri = drak/hra/-i = guard + people + possessive/plural = "guardians of the people". That works.
Hhriss...I have no freakin' clue. No really...I mean, you might have a notion similar to hhallas at work there, but I'm not sure how that breaks down either.
Sivar = siv/ar = siv + primary/first. We know this is the proper name for the Kilrathi war god, so I take siv = "war", thus "first of war" or "leader of war". That works.
Snakeir. If it weren't for the extra "e" telling you how to pronounce the stupid thing, I would break it down as sna/ak/ir = sna + taste/water/drink + plant/blossom. That extra "e" throws a monkey wrench into the works, but perhaps we're still dealing with a related concept. Plus as best I can tell this is the only instance of "sn" anywhere in the lexicon. And I still don't know how "blossom" relates to the name of a fleet carrier. Japanese equivalent for plant/blossom is "hana" if anyone wants to fish me out a possible name here. snake="death" crossed my mind (hence "death blossom"), but there's nothing to support that.

I really only want to do one or two more here; most of what I've got is conjectural at best.
Ralarrad = ral/ar/rad = destroyer + primary + rite/ritual/custom = "traditional main destroyer". I get rad = "rite/ritual/custom" from the word eshrad = ceremony, breaking it down as esh/rad = time + rite/ritual/custom = "time of the ritual". Nothing really supports esh = "time" but it can be compared to ekh = "fast/speed".
Ralaxath I break down as ral/ar/x/rath = destroyer+primary+corrupted concept indicator+ question/dominate. Now, ordinarily I'd apply the corruptive as a suffix - ar+x = ax in this case and we'd wind up with a meaning similar to "overlord", hence "dominating overlord destroyer" or some such. Were I instead to apply it as a prefix to rath, it would wind up as xath and have a meaning similar to "annihilate", thus "annihilating main destroyer". I don't know which one I like better.

Vaktoth - we can break that down as va/ak/toth = negation + taste/drink/water + toth, thus "does not taste toth". Hard to come up with a meaning for toth in light of zartoth = zar/toth = sixty-fourth + toth. (zar="sixty-fourth" from zarmak = zar/mak = sixty-fourth + measure of distance). Best I can come up with is toth = failure/defeat, thus "does not taste defeat". Perhaps zartoth as "sixty-fourth defeat" would refers to the chance the enemy has of finding and destroying the thing or some such, or perhaps zar also means "electronic signal" as WCX originally suggested. I don't know.

I have down ahn = "squadron/group" in my notes - this comes from the untranslated rank of kalahn, which we're told in Victory Streak is the equivalent of a commodore. A commodore typically is the commanding officer of a naval squadron - a small group of ships. With khantar the equivalent of a rear admiral and kal shintar the equivalent of a captain, kalahn = kal/ahn = lord + squadron/group = "squadron leader" makes sense. Has interesting ramifications in light of paktahn, especially if you go like this:
paktahn = pak/ta/ahn = foot/paw + for + squadron/group = "paw for group". A paw contains claws as a rule; perhaps this is a euphemism. Or perhaps I have a bad translation.

pak = foot/paw? Yeah, from paki = "pawn", with "pawn" coming from "peon" or "foot soldier". Hence paki = pak/-i = foot/paw+possessive/plural = "my feet".

Kiranka = kir/an/ka = youth + squadron/group + blood. "Youngbloods"? As good a name as any...

I'm beginning to fall asleep anyway, so I'll just end this here. I might try some of the other names later.
 
Only trouble I have with this whole translation is that I don't know where the term kaschee comes from. I'm assuming the Confederation Handbook, but if someone could help me out there, I'd sure appreciate it.

This term is from Pilgrim Stars.
 
See, I remember something about that too. I think that goes back to Claw Marks, where Bakhtosh Redclaw is described as belonging "to an aristocratic Kilrathi family"; Khasra would appear to be from the same family as well ("Khasra Redclaw will kill you". -- Khasra, Ghorah Khar 2-C, Special Operations 1) and he's identified as one of Thrakhath's cousins. Both are nar Kiranka; there's pretty much no doubt about that.

If anybody knows the source that explicitly says kiranka = "red claw", I'd appreciate it; colors are one of the things I've been having problems deciphering. Ka for red would make a hell of a lot of sense (seeing as it already has been translated as both "blood" and "spirit"). Otherwise I'm inclined to believe that "Redclaw" is simply a family name within the larger nar Kiranka. It wouldn't be without precedent for there to be a separate family name under the larger clan, particularly if you go with Japanese clans as your model.

Ah, Andrew Keith - why did you have to go and mess up the simplicity of Kilrathi names on us?
 
Well, tonight's my last overnight for this semester. I figured I'd try to decipher this one last phrase:
Kir'kha n'ikh rakh k'har, Sharhi nar Hhallas = "I, Sharhi nar Hhallas, swear to avenge my honor."

This sentence appears to be the only case in the translated set of Kilrathi phrases wherein the subject of the sentence appears at the end. Probably has something to do with the age of the statement or something. I would say it had something to do with the proper noun, but then you've got:
Kamekh ni'lakh, ki'ha rakra Terran'ra = "This is the corvette 'My Ancestors' - we are under attack by Terran persons."
Here the proper noun subject appears at the front of the sentence. Indeed, in most cases Kilrathi seems to follow standard sentence structure.

So let's work with the assumption that kir'kha n'ikh rakh k'har = "swear to avenge my honor" and that the sentence structure in this one case is completely jacked up. We have the following translated terms at this point -
kir = youth ("not blossom")
n'ikh = my
rakh = honor
k'= absence / lack of
har = shit / feces
We also have khant = fleet = kha + -nt = kha + craft/vehicle. It would suggest kha has a meaning of something like "group", but we've already established that as a meaning for ahn. Perhaps one is a diminutive form of the other kha = "group", ahn = "small group". That would still jive with ahn's near-appearance in kiranka; IIRC, Kiranka was one of the lesser clans (until they defeated the Ki'ra in battle and became the Imperial clan).

Of course, what you then wind up with then is this:
kir'kha n'ikh rakh k'har = (not blossom+group)+my+honor+(absence/lack of+shit/feces)
Like Yoda it sounds.

Based on that I'm inclined to think that kir'kha = swear/vow/promise and k'har = avenge/reclaim/(take) no shit, and the sentence literally reads "swear my honor to avenge, Shari nar Hhallas" or "vow my honor to take no shit, Shari nar Hhallas." One usually issues an oath or vow something in the presence of one's fellows for purposes of support and accountability. What that has to do with being young or not blossoming, who knows - I'm guessing kir'kha is a word that has an obscure cultural origin. Same goes for k'har, though that one is perhaps a little less obscure in its meaning.

I think the more modern version of the sentence would read "Nai, Sharhi nar Hhallas, kir'kha k'har ni'rakh", or if you want to take out the personal pronoun, "Nikir'kha k'har ni'rakh."

That was short. Maybe I can move on to H'as aiy'hra n'hakh ri'kahri krikajj, nai korekh sha'yi. = "Beyond the eyes of my enemy, I shall prepare for the day of his destruction".
I haven't got that one translated yet but there are a few elements there that have been done -
h'as = will/shall
hra = persons/people of indeterminate number
ha = must
akh = water/drink/taste
ekh = speed
nai = I/me/mine (me+possessive)

Another case where the sentence structure has been jacked up then -
h'as aiy'hra n'hakh ri'kahri krikajj = "I shall prepare for the day of his destruction"
nai korekh sha'yi = "Beyond the eyes of my enemy"
Of course, the sentence is awkward as hell in English already anyway...

Okay...concepts then based on the structure. Let's assume Yoda's still speaking here - "I shall for the day of his destruction prepare". Five words in the Kilrathi language, and we have concepts of will/shall, day, destruction and prepare.

h'as has been established as will/shall, so let's assume the personal pronoun is just missing in this case.
aiy'hra = aiy+persons/people. I don't know what to do with aiy, so let's just skip over that one for now.

n'hakh
is translatable: ni/ha/akh = I/me+must+taste = "I must taste"
Then you've got ri'kahri; It can be broken down as ri/kah/ri or ri/ka/hri, the second of which has a translated concept - ka = "blood/spirit". I suppose then it could also be ri/ka/ahr/ri - which becomes ri+(blood+primary)+ri and we have a concept sandwich at work. Perhaps ri is a pronoun; I had rai=you/yours already (from k'rakh drish'kai rai h'ra = "Stop where you are" - lack of/honor + drish'kai + you/your + persons/people). We could also break it down as ri/ka/ahr/-i - then we get "you+(blood+principal+possessive/plural)". I'm thinking here that kahr = "heart" - and that ri'kahri = "his heart's (something, probably 'beat)'"
Then n'hakh ri'kahri becomes a phrase - "I must taste his heartbeat", or something to that effect. That might serve as a notion for destruction.

krikajj = "prepare" then? Well...if that one gets broken down to kri/ik/ajj...hey, there's my old friend ik=knowledge/to know, and ajj could be a variant of agg=trap/snare. Kri compares to kra=battle/attack...actually, strike that. tr'=battle/struggle by itself - so kr without any vowel could have a comparable meaning. kr/ik/ajj - so, attack+knowledge+ajj. "Prepare" has a general meaning of "make ready ahead of time", so ajj could have a meaning of "plan/design". Attack+knowledge+plan - "plan attack knowledge". Yeah, that's prepare alright.

Leaves aiy'hra = to mean "day", with a -hra suffix indicating it has something to do with persons or people of indeterminate number. The root word from which the word "day" is derived has a meaning of "to burn", an obvious reference to the sun. aiy might indicate a notion of "time of burning" or some-such. Or it may represent a notion of sight - we've got a yi element in the other part of this sentence. Perhaps aiy means "visible/able to be seen" - thus "visible people".

Anyway, let's move on now to nai korekh sha'yi = "Beyond the eyes of my enemy", which perhaps would be easier to translate as "beyond my enemy's eyes". We already have nai = mine and ekh = speed.

I think sha'yi is "enemy's eyes" - break it down as sha/aiy/-i = sha+visible/sight+possessive/plural. Leaves sha to mean enemy/hostile (which might be supported by the curse sharvath; sha/ar/va/ath = enemy+principal+not+question? = "don't ask my worst enemy" - that works).
Then korekh = beyond = kor/ekh = kor+speed.

We see kor in two other places in the lexicon - kor-larh (a fighter/bomber class) and koractu (a curved blade).
koractu may be the saving grace for the hope of translation here - break it down as kor/ra/ak/tu = kor+of/for+taste/drink/water+fight/skirmish = kor + "for tasting a skirmish".
Therefore kor by itself should carry a meaning of "curved" or "bent", and korekh becomes something like "curved speed" or "bent speed". It's a stretch to match that meaning to "beyond", but I think it can be done.

Well, damn - that was actually productive.

What other phrases do I need to translate here......well, let's try k'rakh drish'kai rai h'ra! , translated as "stop where you are" or "stay where you are". From Freedom Flight, of course.
Here we have some previously translated concepts again -
k'rakh = dishonor (lack of honor)
rai = you/your (from which I derived ri just a little bit ago, though in a different grammatical person)
-hra = persons/people of indeterminate number.

We're not actually given a literal translation of this phrase; it's from the context of what's happening in the story that the translation is given (Hunter turns around and sees five assault rifles pointed at him while he and Kirha are trying to rescue Firekkans), so there is some room for maneuvering here. So far we have:
dishonor + drish'kai + you + persons.
Perhaps h'ra could be broken down to ha/ra="must persons" - or better still, har/ra = "shit/feces + persons". It would not be inconceivable for a guard in the process of capturing an enemy and an apparent traitor to issue an oath (I get an image from Police Acedamy, Hooks shouting "Don't move, dirtbag!" for some reason).

So let's say any command part of this sentence is held with k'rakh drish'kai - the "you" subject can be understood as with commands in English (otherwise we'd expect a rai there as well).
kai = ka/-i = blood+possessive/plural. dishonor+(drish+(blood+possessive/plural))

Not a clue what drish means...and at this point I think I've expended both my luck and brain power. So I'll call it a night.
 
Ni’kahr k’ik k’fa
ta ni’ha ko'a Sivari
Ni’naji k’ik k’rakh
ta ni’ha Kilrahsiva
Ni’nar h’asavha k’rakh
ta ni'ko ras ni'hraimakskal
Ra ni’trathkh ni’gath laga
Ra ni’naji nai k'haf k'toth
Ra ni'yaga kork ni'ul
Maks gath ni'vu ta rakh
--The Kilrathi Oath of Service, from Voices of War.
 
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And now for something completely different...

♫ Ni'ha orkga erg eshma Khantahr ♫
♫ Ni'dya'ik rashu irormakstha ♫
♫ Nik Ragnithi Tha'hrork maks ni'le tr'eshchuri ♫
♫ Ta Lanirolal du Akhirthraki, ras k'koran ♫
♫ Ni'ikgaga ra hu'ikhak ♫
♫ Nayi takhsi, uni maks hukes ♫
♫ Ras sih'inhadar ni'bhagaga ra wurthrak ♫
♫ Ra ikiga du hutar'yinga magade ♫
♫ Ni'ha kiga du ikhakstra ♫
♫ Ni'ik husiks orinin ♫
♫ Gataga, rashu irormakstha ♫
♫ Ni'ha orkga erg eshma Khantahr ♫

Yeah, forget the Prophecy of Sivar; I just want to sing a little Gilbert and Sullivan...haven't bothered with the second and third verses. Yet.
 
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Ras KAL dya hakthrakgaga rasnak mas Gar'gath Gar ni'lingha uni, mas ja'lhra ladya Gar h'inav nis n'hakh ri'kahri, qu'dya vurageshga
--John 3:16

Qu ek'dya huthrakmas bhaltha, mas gar'h'insa mas arg jaqav kai qu jaq KAL
--2 Corinthians 4:7 (one of my personal favorites)
 
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And now for something completely different...

♫ Ni'ha orkga erg eshma Khantahr ♫
♫ Ni'dya'ik rashu irormakstha ♫
♫ Nik Ragnithi Tha'hrork maks ni'le tr'eshchuri ♫
♫ Ta Lanirolal du Akhirthraki, ras k'koran ♫
♫ Ni'ikgaga ra hu'ikhak ♫
♫ Nayi takhsi, uni maks hukes ♫
♫ Ras sih'inhadar ni'bhagaga ra wurthrak ♫
♫ Ra ikiga du hutar'yinga magade ♫
♫ Ni'ha kiga du ikhakstra ♫
♫ Ni'ik husiks orinin ♫
♫ Gataga, rashu irormakstha ♫
♫ Ni'ha orkga erg eshma Khantahr ♫

Yeah, forget the Prophecy of Sivar; I just want to sing a little Gilbert and Sullivan...haven't bothered with the second and third verses. Yet.

Now, if we can put that into the cutscene generator...
 
With a nice loop of Thrakhath - probably from the WC2 opener - and possibly the actual tune playing in the background. :):confused::cool:
I don't think y'all have delved into how the MIDI sequences have been packaged yet...

The second and third verses are going to be a challenge. Coming up with Kilrathi equivalents for "England", "Waterloo" and "Marathon" were probably the most challenging bit of the first verse.

Also seriously considering a translation of "A British Tar". That one seems like it'd be more in-line with the Kilrathi way of doing things ("knock-down blow" and all that). Plus the lyrics are less on the whimsical/bizarre side.

EDIT: Oh hell...the cadence of "British Tar" is matching pretty well so far.
 
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♫ Shinta'hrorks'ha zaga'doga, ♫
♫ K'dya takh dor thagaga, ♫
♫ Gar'pakarg ha'ha tr'aj'k ♫
♫ Lekaxa. ♫
♫ Gar'ye ha'dakekarg ♫
♫ Maks gar'lanagkhyin ha'kor, ♫
♫ Gar'cho'yin hakh ♫
♫ Maks gar'yuthrak ha'braj, ♫
♫ Gar'hudya ha'nisga ♫
♫ Maks gar'kahr ha'ji, ♫
♫ Maks gar'pak'ha aj'keshga ta r'dak!! ♫

♫ Gar'ye ha'dakekarg maks gar'lanagkhyin ha'kor, ♫
♫ Gar'cho'yin hakh Maks gar'yuthrak ha'braj, ♫
♫ Gar'hudya ha'nisga maks gar'kahr ha'ji, ♫
♫ Maks gar'pak'ha aj'keshga ta r'dak!! ♫

♫ Gar'yi'i ha'knav'ekhga ra jiduvujaq, ♫
♫ Gar'yuthrak ra k'rakh ha'niskor ♫
♫ Gar'veshakor ras yinbrajrath ♫
♫ Qu trakthkh'kaxakhmer! ♫
♫ Gar'pak ha'panoth, ♫
♫ Maks gar'yai ha'lelk, ♫
♫ Gar'yan ha'niskor, ♫
♫ Maks gar'yin ha'yinbraj, ♫
♫ Gar'yi'i ha'knav'ekh, ♫
♫ Maks gar'hudya ha'gaga, ♫
♫ Maks ma ha'ha gar'dirads. ♫

♫ Gar'pak ha'panoth, maks gar'yai ha'lelk, ♫
♫ Gar'yan ha'niskor, maks gar'yin ha'yinbraj, ♫
♫ Gar'yi'i ha'knav'ekh, maks gar'hudya ha'gaga, ♫
♫ Maks ma ha'ha gar'dirads, gar'di, gar'di, gar'di. ♫


Silly though this is, this turned out to be extraordinarily useful...
 
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