tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 19 09:31:51 2004

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Re: meQ (was Re: suggestions please)

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

Voragh:
>> >That's the noun.  {laQ} "fire (ignite?)" and {meQ} "burn (be burnt/on
>> >fire?)" are verbs.

QeS lagh:
>>Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't {meQ} been used in canon as a transitive
>>verb as well? I just ran a search of my canon database and couldn't find it,
>>but I seem to recall seeing {meQ} cited on this list at some point for "burn
>>(transitive), cause to burn".

lay'tel SIvten:
>{to'waQ meQ vutwI'.}    The cook burns the tendon.   [KGT 191]
>
>This is a possible misinterpretation/mispronunciation of
>{to'waQ mIQ vutwI'.}  The cook deep-fries the tendon. [KGT 191]
>and so it may be grammatically anomalous.

Indeed.  {meQ} is one of our problem words.  It's been used as an action 
verb intransitively:

   meQtaHbogh qachDaq Suv qoH neH
   Only a fool fights in a burning house. TKW
   [lit. "in a building that is burning"]

as an action verb transitively:

   to'waQ meQ vutwI'
   The cook burns the tendon. KGT

and as a quality:

   Ha'DIbaHmey meQ Sop 'e' tIv tera'nganpu'
   Terrans enjoy eating burnt animals.  CK
   [sic! for {'e' *lu*tIv tera'nganpu'}]

This CK example is the problem.  Note too the grammatical error with the 
verb prefix.  Perhaps this is just careless or a colloquial usage.

Perhaps, too, the speaker (Worf's brother Kurnn IIRC) was struggling to 
come up with a way to refer to the bizarre Terran practice of heating 
(burning? ruining?) perfectly good meat before eating it.  Cf. Okrand on 
{vut} "cook}:

   Actually, "cook" is a convenient but misleading term. The Klingon
   verb {vut}, customarily rendered as "cook" in Federation Standard
   and used in reference to food only, might better be translated
   simply as "prepare, make, fix, assemble" in order to avoid associ-
   ation of the word with heat. This is not to say that heat never
   plays a role in Klingon food preparation, but rather that it is
   not a defining feature of the process. There are specific words
   for specific activities involved with food preparation, but {vut}
   is a general term for all of them. In fact, {vut} can also be used
   in reference to making a beverage, whether simply mixing ingredients
   together (such a putting cream in coffee) or starting from scratch
   (such as brewing ale).   (KGT 83)



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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