tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 08 07:21:43 2005
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Re: Klingon WOTD: tIng (noun)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Tuesday, November 8, 2005.
>
>Klingon word: tIng
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition: area southwestward / area towards the southwest
>
>Additional Notes:
>HolQeD 8:4, p. 6. While the four main compass points used in the
>Federation (north, east, south, west) are distributed evenly (that is,
>they are 90 degrees apart from each other: north is 90 degrees away from
>east, east is 90 degrees away from south, and so on), this is not the case
>in the Klingon system. The three directions are not evenly spaced (that
>is, they are not 120 degrees apart from each other). Instead, the areas
>associated with {'ev} and {tIng} are closer to each other than than either
>is to the area associated with {chan}. (The areas associated with {'ev}
>and {tIng} are something like 100 degrees apart from each other, and each
>is 130 degrees away from the area associated with {chan}.)
Some examples Okrand posted on startrek.klingon (11/21/99) showing how the
cardinal directions are used using {chan} "area eastward, area towards the
east" and {ev} "area northwestward, area towards the northwest":
These Klingon direction nouns work in the same manner as other nouns of
location (nouns used to express prepositional concepts) such as {Dung}
"area above", {bIng} "area below", and {retlh} "area beside, area next to".
Thus, just as {nagh Dung}, literally "rock area-above" or "rock's
area-above" is used for "above the rock", {veng chan}, literally "city
area-eastward" or "city's eastward area" is commonly translated "east of
the city". Depending on the sentence in which the phrase is used, the
second noun in this construction (in this case {chan} "area eastward")
could take the locative suffix {-Daq}, as in:
veng chanDaq jIwam
I hunt east of the city.
The "city in the east" (actually, "city toward the east") or "eastern city"
would be the "area-eastward city": {chan veng}.
chan vengDaq jIwam
I hunt in the city in the east.
The "city's east", meaning "the eastern part of the city", would make use
of {yoS} "area, district": {veng chan yoS} (literally "city area-eastward
district" or "city's eastward-area's district").
The directional nouns may also be used with possessive suffixes. For
example (switching from the east, for the sake of variety): {'evwIj}
"northwest of me" (literally "my area-northwestward"), {'evmaj} "northwest
of us" (literally "our area-northwestward"). These words may also be
translated "northwest of here". For example:
'evmajDaq jIwampu'
I have hunted northwest of here.
There is an idiomatic expression still heard with reasonable frequency
which makes use of all three cardinal direction terms: {tIngvo' 'evDaq
chanDaq}. Literally, this means "from area-southwestward to
area-northwestward to area eastward", but the idiom means "all around, all
over, all over the place". It is used in the same place in a sentence that
the noun {Dat} "everywhere" might be used, but it is much more emphatic:
tIngvo' 'evDaq chanDaq jIlengpu'
I've traveled all over the place.
A more archaic form of the idiom is {tIngvo' 'evDaq 'evvo' chanDaq}
(literally, "from area-southwestward to area-northwestward, from
area-northwestward to area eastward"), but the three-word version (without
the repetition of {'ev}) has all but totally replaced it.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons