Christmas on Barsoom!

(click for podcast)

I've found a great site dedicated to a planned Barsoom movie:




And better yet, on that site I found a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Festivus present - an audio adaption of A Princess of Mars - I'm making an Audio CD of it with some artwork to give as gifts:


Here's a wonderful adaption of Burroughs "A Princess of Mars"
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/princess_of_mars.cfm

Though I don't think it is apparent listening to it, this audio book is abridged into "special english", a simplified version of the English language used by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America in daily broadcasts. It is read a bit slowly, using a limited vocabulary and simplified grammar. There is a short pause between adjacent words so that word boundaries are easily discerned. The intended audience of Special English are people who have studied English in school, but do not speak it in daily usage.


The "Bible in Basic English" is a similar restricted English product:

See the Christmas story in BBE
here

Click for Barsoomian vocabulary.

Music: Cagey House creates ethereal yet dangerous electronic music.
"Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists"


Artist Frank E. Schoonover created five pictures for the book, as well as its cover. One of the images, reproduced (with some color changes) , is called "Battle With White Apes." The original oil painting measures 86 centimeters by 60 centimeters. It hangs in the Free Library of Philadelphia.

A Trip to Memory Alpha!

(click for podcast)
Memory Alpha is a planetoid, located in Federation space, on which the Federation's largest library is located. The library is a central repository for the collected scientific, historical, and cultural information from each member planet of the Federation.

Memory Alpha's crew complement varies over time depending on the librarians, researchers and other people serving in the colony.




Memory Alpha is also a great Wiki - http://www.memory-alpha.org
and is a repository of all canonical Star Trek information. Thanks to Steven Boozer reminding me of it last week!

It is of interest in Xenolinguistics because of this article:

---

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Language

Countless different spoken, written, and gestural languages are used by different cultures throughout space. Generally, the universal translator is able to surmount the language barrier between different groups, allowing interstellar society to exist. It is not always successful, however.

Languages

• Axanar
• Bajoran language family
  • Ancient Bajoran
  • Modern Bajoran
• Cardassian
• Denobulan
• Dominionese
• Ferengi
• Giamon
• Haliian
• Human languages
  • English
  • French
  • Greek
  • Latin
  • Russian
  • Sign language
  • Spanish
  • Swahili
  • Swedish
• Iconian language family
  • Dewan
  • Dinasian
  • Iccobar
• Jaradan
• Klingon
• Kobali
• Kreetassan
• Kriosian
• Menk
• Risan
• Romulan
• Stroyerian
• Tamarian
• Tak Tak
• Trill
• Valakian
• Vulcan
• Whale song
• Xindi-Aquatic
• Xindi-Insectoid

See also

• Linguistic database
• Linguacode
• Slang

---

MUSIC:

Christmas on Romulus

Klingons Do Not Faint

from the Louis Gentile Experience

http://www.garageband.com/artist/lou_gentile_experience

christmas in romulus
Space-Axe

http://www.garageband.com/artist/spaceaxe

A Few Words with the Ca'non Master

(click image for interview notes)
(click for podcast)

An email interview with Voragh, aka Steven Boozer, the Ca'Non Master of the Klingons.

[Ack - I misspoke. Call it a think-o. My sound problem is a 60 CYCLE hum, not 60 mhz. - d'oh]

Klingon Sources
The Klingon Institute www.kli.org
KLI mailing list
Klingon Word of the Day mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kwotd/


qIb HeHDaq On The Edge of The Galaxy

Vulcan Sources
alt.startrek.surak alt.startrek.vulcan
Marketa Zvelebil's website

MrKlingon's online Dictionary


Romulan Sources
MrKlingon's online Dictionary



Music:
clip from Klingons Do Not Faint

from the

Louis Gentile Experience

http://www.garageband.com/artist/lou_gentile_experience

I Wonder from Natalie Brown - http://www.garageband.com/artist/nataliebrown

Celestial Season's Greetings?

(click for podcast )

How do you say "Merry Christmas" to an alien?


QISmaS petIv!

The first word QISmaS is an attempt to transliterate "Christmas" into a Klingon spelling. After all, we don't translate "Christmas" into English - it's a word composed of Greek and Latin parts. It seems reasonable for Klingons to adopt this term to denote the celebration. The second word, petIv, is an imperative "all-of-you-enjoy-it!" You may decide to soften this with "botIvjaj" "may-you-enjoy-it" - or if you celebrate Christmas too, you could say QISmaS wItIvjaj "may we enjoy Christmas!"

toDwI'ma' qoS yItIv!

This is a phrase to indicate you, too, celebrate Jesus's birth. Literally "our-saviour's-birthday you-enjoy-it." Note here I said "yItIv," which is the singular "you" command "enjoy". You could also, as I noted earlier, say petIv or botIvjaj.


Stretching things a bit- some terms from the http://GalacticPhraseBook.MrKlingon.org
You can guess at the pronounciation - I've no guess for most of these - and take on Christmas to form your own greeting:

Thees
Good. [Ewok]

menkha

 well, good, correct, satisfactory. [Romulan]

ps
good  [Ferengi]

Drik
adj.   Happy. [Ewok]

Quch
be happy[Klingon]

is
happiness/happy  [F]

Briikase

 Happy [Mandalorian / Mando'a]

----------------

A lovely song as we approach Christmas - music is truly a universal language!

"Stille Nacht" / "Silent Night" / tam ram



http://www.garageband.com/artist/karen_stachel


[This audio was re-edited to get out some of the noise from the original]