tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Apr 09 09:18:58 2004
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Klingon WOTD: veDDIr (n)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Friday, April 9, 2004.
>
>Klingon word: veDDIr
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition: pelt
>
>Additional Notes:
>KGT. Fur with skin still attached.
"Accompanying sleeves (tlhaymey), originally not parts of the tunic
[yIvbeH] itself, were generally made of animal pelts (veDDIrmey), skin
(DIr) with fur (veD) still attached." (KGT 58)]
"Since number is an optional category in Klingon (the plural suffix may be
left off even if the word refers to more than one thing), {DIr} may refer
to 'a skin' or 'skins' or 'skin' as a material or substance. Likewise for
{veDDIr} 'pelt, pelts'. So the problem of which plural suffix to use comes
up only when one feels the need to be very specific. If I understand Maltz
correctly, it works like this: The general plural suffix {-mey} is not used
with body parts (except by poets, of course). Thus {DIrmey} 'skins' and
{veDDIrmey} 'pelts' are not (or, perhaps better, are no longer) body parts,
but rather are materials from which things (clothing or blankets, for
example) may be made. They've lost their association with the creatures
that originally had them. (This is kind of like the distinction in English
between 'beef', which is eaten, and 'cattle', which isn't.) If there still
is that association, that is, if the creatures still have their skin, or if
it's a creature that has multiple skins (maybe layers, maybe different
kinds of skin on different parts of the body), or if the skin just came off
either by natural causes (as with Alan Anderson's snakes) or by the
creatures being, well, skinned, then the body-part plural suffix {-Du'} may
be used: {DIrDu'}. But {DIr} alone, without a suffix, is heard most
often." [st.klingon 3/23/1998]
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
![[KLI Member]](/pics/KLImemberbutton.gif "[KLI Member]"){kind=small}