tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Apr 11 11:46:45 1998
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Matters of honor
|[Qov (?) wrote:]
|>} wej be' moj puqbe'vam, 'ach Hem 'ej be' quv ghaj.
|>}This girl has not yet become a woman, but is proud and has a woman's
|>}honor.
|>
|>A couple of points:
|>1. "have honor" may be an English idiom. We have patience, have honour,
|>have a fit, have time ... Klingons may use {ghaj} only for actual
|possessions.
|
|On p. 59 of TKW Okrand uses "batlh Hutlh" to say "He has no honor." In
|light of that, perhapse "be' batlh Hutlhbe'" would be the best choice to
|say, "She has a womans honor."
|
|SuSvaj
Your point is valid, but it's {quv Hutlh} actually:
quv Hutlh HoHbogh tlhIngan 'ach qabDaj 'angbe'bogh.
The Klingon who kills without showing his face has no honor.
which is followed on p. 61 by:
'ang'eghQo' quv Hutlhbogh jagh neH ghobtaHvIS ghaH.
Only an enemy without honor refuses to show himself in battle.
The difference between {batlh} and {quv} is hard to pin down, but I tend to
view {quv} as one's personal honor or reputation. For example, the
merchant warns the hapless Terran tourist in the untranslated opening
dialogue in "Power Klingon":
quvwIj DatIchpu', tera'ngan.
[You have insulted my honor, Terran.]
{batlh} (the noun, not the adverbial) seems to be more Honor in the larger
sense, i.e. one of the generally accepted virtues {ghobmey} shared by
Klingon society as a whole, the sort of thing Klingons recognize when they
see it.
batlh potlh law' yIn potlh puS.
Honor is more important than life. (TKW p. 53)
Not to mention Kahless' famous {batlh 'etlh} or "Sword of Honor". There
is, to be sure, a certain amount of overlap -- at least it seems that way
to this Terran:
batlh qelDI' tlhIngan, lumbe'.
A Klingon does not postpone a matter of honor. (TKW p. 67)
No doubt your average Klingon warrior could go into this at length and in
mind-numbing detail.
Voragh