What you see above — with slight alterations on our part — is the website for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, a .gov website. Among the services they offer is a Klingon translation of the site’s 280+ pages.
The Klingon translation started out as a promotion for the Star Trek Into Darkness movie that premiered in May. It has remained long after the movie release because the department received positive feedback from some who found it humorous. It also has managed to draw more traffic to the department’s website, spokesman Greg Rivara said. [Chicago Tribune via Neatorama]
The Klingon translation is handled for free by Microsoft Translator. Staff members verify the translations for every language on the site except Klingon, so this Klingon translation doesn’t cost any taxpayer money. That hasn’t stopped baktags with poor reading comprehension from complaining about the “waste of taxpayer dollars” on every comment thread on this story, however.
The department did not take time to review Klingon — so some words, like “appeal” and “unemployment,” don’t translate on the site.
That’s because, on Qo’noS, there is no appeal. Only war.
“To the best of my knowledge, we don’t have any certified Klingon translators on staff,” Rivara said.
No certified Klingon translators on staff? YOU HAVE NO HONOR!