tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 11 08:09:29 2008
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Re: Klingon WOTD: SoS (noun)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Tuesday, March 11, 2008.
>
>Klingon word: SoS
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition: mother
Used in canon:
Hab SoSlI' Quch
Your mother has a smooth forehead!! PK
SoSwI' vavwI' je quvmoHjaj paqvam
[Okrand's dedication, t.p. verso] KGT
Cultural notes:
KGT 198f.: Within the family, a child usually addresses his or her mother
as {SoS} (Mother) and father as {vav} (Father), though it is not uncommon
for younger children to use the words {SoSoy} (Mommy) and {vavoy} (Daddy).
These are the regular words for "mother" and "father" followed by the
suffix {-oy}, which indicates endearment. Most older children drop the
{-oy} around the time of their Age of Ascension, though some continue to
use it even after that, especially when addressing the parent of the
opposite sex... Though almost always heard as terms of direct address (as
in {Sosoy jIghung} ["Mommy, I'm hungry"]), kinship terms with the suffix
{-oy} are occasionally used as subjects or objects of sentences,
particularly in the speech of younger children. For example, a proud child
may say, {SuvwI' ghaH vavoy'e'} ("My daddy is a warrior").
In TNG "Parallels" Worf asked Deanna Troy to be Alexander's *So'chIm* in
the event that anything happened to him. The *So'chIm* is a surrogate
mother or godmother, i.e. a woman who raises a child if the natural parents
are killed and to be asked to become one is a great honor. N.B. This is
not the same thing as a {ghojmoq} *ghojmok* - nurse, nanny, governess,
nursemaid - who is apparently a servant, although one trusted to care for
the family's children. (Kahlest was young Worf's *ghojmok* on Khitomer
[TNG "Sins of the Father"].)
Related nouns:
{SoSnI'} "grandmother"
{SoStaj} "mother's knife". "A wickedly shaped weapon, the wounds inflicted
by the SoStaj are particularly painful and deadly." (KCD)
Also, note the pun in {SoSbor'a'} "main (computer) core" on the
Bird-of-Prey Poster. <g>
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons