tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 02 13:01:12 2006

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

How do you say "pizza" in Klingon?

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) 

Some time ago we were playing with this question on the list.  Today I read 
that the increasingly xenophobic mullahcracy in Iran is struggling with the 
same problem:

   TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered
   government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to
   replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as
   "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media
   reported Saturday.

   The presidential decree, issued earlier in the week, orders all
   governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words
   deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the
   Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the IRNA official
   news agency reported.

   The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives
   for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in
   Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensi-
   tive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic.

   Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a
   "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to the official
   Web site of the academy.

   (Cf. http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/)

To tie this back to Klingon, SuStel once reported that:

   At a {qep'a'} a few years ago, we asked Marc Okrand about this,
   and he said that {chab} would work for this. The word means any
   baked bread or crust sort of food. So, doughnuts are {chab},
   turnovers are {chab}, and pizza is {chab}. Mince pie would be
   {chab}. Bagels are {chab}. [...] {chab} doesn't equal "bread."



--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

Back to archive top level