tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 17 13:54:28 2004

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Re: DonHa'

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 


>Russ Perry Jr:
>>>Not really, but you could circumlocute it as "having an angle of 90
>>>degrees from" maybe.  I can't recall if we have a measure for angles
>>>in Klingon though...
>
>Sangqar:
>>We don't.

De'vID:
>Going through the "new words list", I notice that there is an entry
>for <tajvaj> "angle".  Any idea how this is used?

This is yet another murky area of the language.

Here is all Okrand wrote about angles in HolQeD 11.2:

   The attitude of a plane is its orientation relative to something,
   such as the {ghangwI'} "horizon" ... The attitude of an aircraft
   is often talked about in terms of angles. The word for "angle" is
   {tajvaj}.  Klingon {taH} means "be at a negative angle".

Some speculated that this was really intended as a verb: i.e. "be at an 
angle", but others responded that we (theoretically at least) could say 
*{taHHa'} "be at a positive angle".

>                                               It seems to have been
>added together with a whole bunch of aircraft maneuvering terms.

{tajvaj} and other aeronautical words were created for new {matlh jupwI'} - 
and licenses pilot - Qov, who asked Okrand:  "The word I am looking for is 
probably something like 'be in an attitude', 'hold [an aircraft] in an 
attitude', 'be at an angle with respect to' or 'be tilted in the direction 
of', or it may be 'axis' or 'horizon', or something entirely different" 
(Qov, 7/12/2002).

I suspect that {tajvaj} may be used together with the verbs {taH} and {lol} 
"be in an attitude (i.e. aircraft); be in a stance, be in a pose (i.e. 
people or animals)" -- but how, exactly, I'm not sure.  We also don't know 
the word for "degree" or even how many degrees are in a Klingon circle {gho}.

I wonder whether {lol} and {taH} belong to the set of Klingon measurement 
verbs?  Cf. for example {'aD} "have a length of, measure":

   wejvatlh loSmaH loS vI' vagh wej 'uj 'aD Duj
   Length: 120 M. (KBoP)

Literally, "The ship measures 344.56 ujes long" or "The ship has a length 
of 344.56 ujes".  (The {'uj} or *uj* is a unit of linear measure, about 35 cm.)



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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