tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 26 14:38:32 2004

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Re: Klingon WOTD: na' (v)

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


>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Sunday, January 25, 2004.
>
>Klingon word:   na'
>Part of Speech: verb
>Definition:     be sure, definite, positive, certain
>
>Additional Notes:
>KGT.  (slang).  See also {bej}.

   The word {na'} literally means "be salty", but its slang usage is
   probably influenced by the noun suffix {-na'} ("definite"), which
   is used when the speaker wants to indicate that he or she is
   absolutely sure about what is being said (compare {maghwI'}
   "traitor", and {maghwI'na'} "definite traitor, without a doubt a
   traitor"). The slang word, a verb, is used in such constructions
   as {jIna'} ("I am positive [about something I just said]"; lite-
   rally, "I am salty"] and {bIna''a'} ("Are you sure?"; literally,
   "Are you salty?"). These kinds of meanings may be expressed
   without using slang by employing such verbs as {Honbe'} ("not
   doubt") or {Sovbej} ("know for certain"). See also {bej}, a slang
   term with similar meaning.  [KGT 156-57]

   Unlike the verb {na'} ("be salty"), which has an identical slang
   meaning (see below), the verb {bej} may be used when there is an
   object: {HIvrup 'e' vIbej} ("I am positive they're ready to attack";
   literally, "I watch that they're ready to attack"). The notions
   expressed by {bej} can be conveyed without slang with a word such
   as {Honbe'} ("not doubt") or by making use of the verb suffix {-bej},
   as in {HIvrupbej} ("They're certainly ready to attack").  [KGT 145]

In my notes I have the pre-KGT "unofficial slang" expression *{DIch vIghaj} 
"I'm sure, I'm certain" which my notes say was coined on the List by - 
appropriately enough - Krankor.  <g>  (See his discussion of slang in the 
current "HolQeD".)  This was, of course, modeled on the canonical 
expression {pIch vIghajbe'} "It's not my fault" in TKD's List of Useful 
Expressions.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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