Only in Finland: Klingon for Parliament
Courtesy of Katja. Excerpt from Reuters.
Finnish MP seeks votes in Klingon
HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series Star Trek.
"Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon," said Jyrki Kasvi, an ardent Trekkie. "Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves."
He said his politics posed some translation difficulties, since Klingon does not have words for matters such as tolerance, or for many colours, including green -- the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections on March 18.
Non-warriors can also access the site, www.kasvi.org, in English, Swedish and Finnish.
Finnish MP seeks votes in Klingon
HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series Star Trek."Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon," said Jyrki Kasvi, an ardent Trekkie. "Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves."
He said his politics posed some translation difficulties, since Klingon does not have words for matters such as tolerance, or for many colours, including green -- the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections on March 18.
Non-warriors can also access the site, www.kasvi.org, in English, Swedish and Finnish.
posted by Anniina | 4:44 PM
4 Comments:
I'm not familiar with Star Trek at all, so I had to check what Klingon was in the first place. The site about this artificial language states: quote*While there have been other artificial languages, and other languages crafted for fictional beings, Klingon is one of the rare times when a trained linguist has been called upon to create a language for aliens. *quote ends.
What's your opinion about this statement being true? How about Tolkien and the language he created for the elves, the yrchs and so on?
Well, the statement says "called upon" meaning this linguist was hired... Tolkien created the language as his own labour of love, and secondly, the statement says "aliens" and elves and orcs while (perhaps) being creatures of fantasy, are not technically "alien" races. So taking the statement strictly, it would seem to be correct.
I can't believe you've never seen Star Trek! Not even the movies?
Oh, I am thankful for your explanation. *call upon* is an expression I haven't known about.
And you are right about the second part of your reasoning, too. Plus, I tend to believe that elves and other creatures might, might even exist.... :)
Re: Star Trek. Yes, not even the movie. I think I've seen like 10 minutes of the tv show, while I was very young, but I am not sure. You know, when I was young, and that was some long time ago, American tv series or even movies were not really allowed for the general public... And when I became a teenager and those ridiculous bans were removed I was not really interested in seeing old movies...
(that thing have changed, though, but long story short: I have NOT seen any Star Trek episode and/or the movie version.)
BTW, he got re-elected.
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