tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 10 14:42:53 1998
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RE: Klingon Bird of Prey (KBP) poster: THE TEXT!
>> choH lISbogh Hap'e': cha'pujqut
>> Reaction Moderating Element - Crystalline Dilithium
SuSvaj:
: Hmmm. "Hap'e'", is the 'e' there for emphasis, or is "Hap'e'" intended as
: a new word for "element"?
Herbert Artist:
: I don't understand?
Normally, {-'e'} is used to mark the "topic" of the sentence, which is usually
(though not always) the subject noun. It is also required in sentences of the
"A is B" type, or in Klingon {B 'oH A'e'}. There's a sentence of this type on
the poster (at least, it's a complete sentence in the Klingon):
tlhIngan juHqo'Daq tlhIng yoSDaq 'oH toQDuj chenmoHlu'meH Daq wa'DIch'e'
1st Construction Site: The Kling District, Klingon Home World
It is unusual to see {-'e'} in a simple noun phrase like this, particularly
since Okrand didn't use it with the other {-bogh} phrase on the poster, which
appears in this very same check-off list:
muDDaq 'eDSeHcha lulaQlu'bogh: jav
Atmosperic Take-Off/Landing Thrusters - 6
Note, however, that here {'eDSeHcha} is not the subject of the verb plus
{-bogh} but rather its object, so the two examples are not 100% equivalent.
I wonder whether {Hap'e'} might be a publisher's typo for *{Hap'a'}? {Hap}
means "matter (substance)" and appears in the phrase {Sor Hap} "wood" -
used in
{Sor Hap 'In}, a "type of percussion instrument made of wood" (KGT p.75). Its
antonym appears to be {rugh} "antimatter (substance)", which also appears in
KBP:
nIn: rugh bIQSIp
Fuel - Anti Hydrogen
BTW, Okrand used {-'a'} to create four other new nouns:
chob'a' main corridor (the long neck connecting the head of
the BoP with its body)
cheb'a' an untranslated unit of weight, apparently 9 times an
ordinary {cheb} (ca. 2.25 kg) according to charghwI'
chuq'a' long range
SoSbor'a' main core (computer)
So ?{Hap'a'} "element" ("main/primordial matter") becomes plausible.
OTOH, is {cha'pujqut} "dilithium crystal" really considered an *element* in
Trekdom? Okrand may be using {Hap} simply to mean "material, substance" here,
in which case the {-'e'} may well be for emphasis.
_________________________________________________________________________
Voragh "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons lis est." Horace (Ars Poetica)