tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 05 09:37:18 2010
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RE: yIjaH,'Iwghargh yInej ('go look for a bloodworm', i.e. 'go fish')
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Pamela Munro
>Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 8:07 PM
>
>Hello, friends who know much more about Klingon than I do.
>I am teaching a one-unit class on Klingon this quarter at UCLA (it meets
>for ten hours total). Although I hope that class members and I will
>learn a great deal about this wonderful language, it's primarily going
>to be an overview and introduction to resources. But it needs to be fun.
>At our first meeting class members learned about pronunciation and sang
>"*Qoy, qeylIS puqloD*" and saw some of the ways the text illustrates
>important points about Klingon grammar. At our next meeting I plan to
>take some time for a game of *yIjah, 'Iwghargh yInej*, for which I've
>devised a basic vocabulary. I don't think I can include an attachment
>here, but I'd love your feedback on this. If you email me I'd be happy
>to send you my handout on playing this game.
Pam, since you invited feedback, here goes:
1. There are two known words for "fish" in Klingon:
{ghotI'} fish (n.)
["the most general word for fish", of which there are several varieties (cf. HolQeD 10.4)]
{bIQDep} fish (n.) KGT
Literally "water being" (i.e. a "sea creature") does this include all aquatic beings? N.B. {norgh} is glossed "type of animal, a sharklike sea creature" in KGT (cf. also the novel SAREK). Is a pipius {pIpyuS} also a {bIQDep}?
We don't know how common fish are on Kronos or whether they're even edible. When Lt. Worf once saw a photo of a very young Cdr. William Riker and his father river fishing near their home in Alaska, he exclaimed in shock: "That is a *fish* you are holding!" (TNG "The Icarus Factor") He didn't explain why the photograph shocked him, though. (Perhaps he merely thought it undignified for a senior officer to display such mementos in his quarters.)
2. There's an accepted way of saying "Let's go..." in Klingon: {Ha'!} "Let's go! Come on!"
lu', Ha'!
Okay, let's go! (Conversational Klingon)
Ha', DaH matlhutlh!
Let us go get a drink (now)! (Power Klingon)
Ha'!
Come along then. (Radio Times)
Ha'!
[untranslated] (Star Trek III)
[Torg motions boarding party to follow him]
Ha'!
[untranslated] (Star Trek V)
[guard grabs Kirk in IKS Okrona's transporter room
to take him to the bridge]
3. IIRC "Go fish!" refers to picking a card at random - "fishing" as it were - from the deck on the table. If you want to avoid fishing altogether, you could say something like {gheD yIjon} "Capture the prey!"
BTW this may recall the Klingon expression {'eb jon} "he/she captures the opportunity" or more colloquially "he/she seizes the opportunity":
Hoch 'ebmey tIjon
Capture all opportunities. (The Klingon Way)
which, come to think of it, would also be a good name for this card game.
Qapla'!
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons