Divehi to Klingon in Latin letters: cannot act and can refrain are different claims
Read ability before choosing where not belongs
Divehi expresses general ability through an involitive construction whose relevant participant is dative. These sentences often use a future form even when the intended ability concerns the present. A translation into Klingon should therefore identify the actual ability claim before treating a source future-looking form as an instruction to describe a later event. The source may say that someone can act now, rather than promise that they will act subsequently.
The distinction becomes sharper under negation. In Klingon, the suffix -laH contributes ability, and the position of -be' determines what is negated. The Klingon Language Institute contrasts vIjatlhlaHbe', cannot speak it, with vIjatlhbe'laH, can refrain from speaking it, in its language-speaking examples. A negative Divehi ability statement should not become a claim that the person has the option of remaining silent. That would replace inability with control.
Source absence and source refusal need separate interpretations
Divehi also uses existential negation with an infinitive in constructions that can refuse an action or state that it will not happen. Its negative particle can consequently occur in a sentence about an intention rather than about a missing object. Before choosing Klingon ability morphology, determine whether the source says the person cannot do something or declines to do it. Neither source negation alone nor an English intermediary containing will not resolves the difference.
For example, a statement that a speaker is not going to reveal an idea does not necessarily say the speaker lacks the ability to reveal it. Conversely, a statement that a task cannot be performed is not merely a polite refusal. Klingon suffix ordering makes one part of this distinction particularly visible, but accurate interpretation begins in the Divehi clause. Preserve the relationship between ability, action and negation instead of inserting -laH simply because the message concerns a possible action.
Participant prefixes add a second required decision
Divehi allows subjects and objects to remain unexpressed when recoverable or vague, and colloquial verbs do not mark number. Klingon prefixes can distinguish combinations of subject and object, including a contrast between wI- for a first-person plural subject with a singular third-person object and DI- with a plural third-person object. A target verb may thus require information that a short source clause leaves to the surrounding exchange.
A translation about what we cannot tell someone must preserve who speaks, what is spoken about and who receives the information, rather than treating the prefix as a decorative first-person marker. Identify the actual target verb’s arguments before selecting it. Latin-letter Klingon spelling also uses meaningful case distinctions, so preserve the chosen forms accurately instead of regularizing them as ordinary sentence capitalization. Correct spelling cannot repair wrong negation scope, but incorrect capitalization can make a carefully selected prefix or suffix harder to recognize. Both the grammatical interpretation and its written form need to survive.
Language references