tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 06 14:43:43 2006
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Re: yan
At 09:27 AM Thursday 10/5/2006, I wrote:
>SuSvaj reported he spoke to Okrand at the last qep'a' (7/28/2006) who
>told him that he had canonized {yan} from *Yan Isleth* ("Brotherhood
>of the Sword"). This is an elite Klingon division charged with protec-
>ting the chancellor, whom they guard at all times; it's his personal
>security force (DS9 "Apocalypse Rising").
You know, it just dawned on me that *isleth* has to be a distortion of
{'etlh} by the Paramount writers.
The word {'etlh} is used for "sword" in general, but it really
means "blade" of any kind... Another word normally translated
"sword", {yan}, is more specific, referring to swords (that is,
weapons with long blades) only. (KGT 60f)
So that this is yet another word created as a back-fit for some actor's bad
pronunciation - or some writer's poor typing into the script - of a
perfectly good Klingon word. (E.g. Valkris' famous mispronunciation of
{joH} "lord" as {jaw}.)
As to *Yan Is...* "brotherhood", who knows what the writer(s) were going
for. (Brother is {loDnI'} and the word beginning in /y/ I can think of
even remotely suitable is {yaS} "officer".) Subsequent to DS9 "Apocalypse
Rising", of course, Okrand punned and created {'obe'} "order, group
officially recognized by government" for the Order of the Bat'leth:
in the ceremony to induct new members into the Order of the Bat'leth
({betleH 'obe'}), the highest honor that the government bestows on a
Klingon, the presiding official, usually the leader of the Klingon
High Council, first reads a name from the {naD tetlh} ("Commendation
List"), always calling out the inductee's name in the most formal way
... The inductee approaches, and the official says - with no variation
- {pInaDqu' tuqlIj wInaDqu' je} ("Glory to you and your house"...)
(KGT 182)
I suppose one can't have an *{'etlh 'obe'}, since an "Order of the Sword"
is virtually the same thing as an "Order of the Bat'leth".
>Interestingly, some of the huge statues seen in the {Subpu' vaS} ("Hall
>of Heroes") at Ty'Gokor during that DS9 episode were holding traditional
>straight swords -- not Kahless-style bat'leths. There's a photo of
>Gowron standing in front of two such statues in KGT (p. 98).
Ironically, soldiers were being inducted into the Order of the Bat'leth in
a hall decorated with statues of famous heroes carrying long swords
{yanmey}! The original Brotherhood of the Sword perhaps?
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons