tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 06 07:46:52 2006
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Re: Klingon WOTD: mebpa'mey (noun)
> >Klingon word: mebpa'mey
> >Part of Speech: noun
> >Definition: hotel
naHQun wrote:
>I don't have a canon sentence, but here is CK on the subject of Klingon
>hotels:
Is this a word Okrand didn't use in the hotel scene from CK naHQun quoted
for us, or did he realize he needed it after the fact? We don't
know. ghunchu'wI's analysis in an old post though is still good:
The translation "hotel" is a convenient noun that exists in English,
but apparently Klingon has no unique word for a collection of guest
rooms. It is rather like talking about a professor's "rooms": you
mean his apartment, but you refer to the collection of rooms instead
of using a singular noun. However, "rooms" isn't a singular noun,
"The professor's rooms are cluttered," not "The professor's rooms is
cluttered." <...> I guess that {mebpa'mey} works the same way. You
could talk about a single {mebpa'} or plural {mebpa'mey}, but there's
no unique noun to describe the collection of these rooms, a hotel.
To refer to just such a building, the old KLI KEVE used the non-canonical
*{mebqach} where guests could check and configure their own virtual
{mebpa'}. For all we know, Klingons may use a "purpose noun" - *{ghIQmeH
qach} "vacation building", *{leSmeH qach} "rest building (house)",
*{lengmeH qach "travelling building", etc. - or something metaphorical like
*{juH ru'} "temporary home".
(Hmm... I kind of like that last one. It follows the pattern of {qagh
ru'}, {boq ru'} and {mu'mey ru'}.)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons