tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 17 08:09:07 1998

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Re: KLBC tlhIngan University/College

: How would indicate  Klingon College, Klingon University.
:
: I really want to say Klingon Academy, I' can't find the word for academy or
: a match.
: 
: valQIS

As this addresses vocabulary and not grammar, I'll answer valQIS since my
dictionary files are probably more complete than BG pagh's.  There are four
canonical words available:

  DuSaQ    school 
  yejHaD   institute, institution 
  yej'an   society (e.g. scholarly society)
  'ampaS   academy 

The last three are listed in _Klingon for the Galactic Traveller_.  Marc
Okrand introduced these earlier in HolQeD 4.4:

   The most general word for school (a place for learning) is {DuSaQ}. A
   specialized school, perhaps translatable as "academy", is {'ampaS}. An
   organization dedicated to scholastic pursuits or research is a {yejHaD}
   "institute" or "institution" or a {yej'an} "society". The distinction
   between {yejHaD} and {yej'an} is not clear, though the former is usually
   --but not always--used for larger organizations. It is not known whether
   the first syllable of these words (yej) is {yej} "council, assembly", but
   there could be some historic connection. Note that {nugh} "society "has a
   much broader meaning: a group of people with a shared culture. Accordingly,
   {tlhIngan nugh} would mean "Klingon society" as distinguished from, say,
   Romulan society, but {tlhIngan yej'an} would probably be "The Klingon
   Society", a group dedicated to the study of Klingons.

{yejHaD} is best known to us from {tlhIngan Hol yejHaD} "The Klingon
Language Institute", a form which Okrand has vetted.  In fact, when Dr
Schoen told him of some people's quibbles regarding the legitimacy of
{yejHaD}, Okrand "laughed and suggested that surely the KLI is a very
ancient and venerable institution, whose name goes back to an earlier
dialect!" (L. Schoen, either on the List or somewhere in HolQeD).

Also, many of us on the List use *{DuSaQ'a'} for "university, college".
Although I don't believe Okrand has used this word himself, I think he has
seen it and let it pass unremarked.

So you can say {tlhIngan 'ampaS} "The Klingon Academy" or {tlhIngan
*DuSaQ'a'} "Klingon College/University".

(You get bonus points if you can figure out the pun in {'ampaS}.  Hint: it's
derived from an abbreviation.)


-- 
Voragh                           "Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons     lis est."         Horace (Ars Poetica)

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