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[Tlhingan-hol] new words [Re: Festival of the Spoken Nerd DVD]

De'vID ([email protected]) 

On 9 March 2015 at 12:22, De'vID <[email protected]> wrote:
> tlhIngan Hol mu' chu' 'oghlu'pu'bogh Marc Okrand ngaS DVD-vam:
> http://festivalofthespokennerd.com/dvd/

The DVD is finalised and will start shipping in May. This means that I
can publicly release the information Dr. Okrand sent me about the new
vocabulary. The translations for the DVD were done by me, with
vocabulary help from Dr. Okrand and proofreading help from Felix
Malmenbeck (loghaD). (Points (5) and (6) have already been posted to
the mailing list previously, since those words didn't actually make it
on to the DVD, but I'm just including the whole message for
completeness.)

The title of the DVD in Klingon is {qatru' jatlhlu'bogh yupma'}. You
can see a sample screen shot here (and follow the @FOTSN Twitter
account for more info):
https://twitter.com/FOTSN/status/583338160752615424

--- begin quote ---

Here's what Maltz had to say.

(1) {ven} can be used for "be nerdy," but there may be some other apt
English translations.  It describes someone who is really into
something (or a number of things), a true devotee, who partakes in
activities associated with whatever he/she is into -- doesn't just sit
on the sidelines -- and does so very seriously (though, with Klingons,
pretty much everything is done very seriously by everybody, so this
isn't much of a distinction).

It is possible to say {venwI'} "one who is nerdy" or "nerd."

(2) Another word for "nerd" is {qatru'}.  Though {venwI'} is fine,
{qatru'} is more common... and nerdier.  ({qatru'} is the word he gave
me before he was perplexed by "nerd vs. geek.")

(3) {ngom} can be used for "be geeky."  Like {ven}, it's used to
describe someone who's really into something and knows a lot about it,
but doesn't necessarily partake in related activities -- certainly not
with the thoroughness of a {qatru'}.  (Also, as with {ven}, there may
be some other English glosses besides "be geeky.")

It is possible to say {ngomwI'} "one who is geeky" or "geek."

(4) For "spectrum," Maltz said to use the word {yutlhegh}.  This is
really a (musical) scale, but the word can also be used for other
sorts of ranges.  Maltz, of course, never heard of a "Spectrum of
Nerdiness," but he said it could be {qatru' yutlhegh} or {venwI'
yutlhegh} or even {ventaHghach yutlhegh}.  (Of the latter, Maltz said
it made sense to him and was grammatical, but he didn't really like
it.)

(5) The Big Bang -- meaning the start of the universe -- is, as you
once hypothesized, {qa'vam}, the word used by Klingons for the Genesis
device.  {qa'vam} is perhaps best defined as "origin of everything" or
"start of it all" or the like.  Maltz said you could say {qa'vam nger}
"Big Bang Theory," but he thought that was weird -- the start of it
all isn't a theory, he said -- it's just the start of it all.  If one
thinks the start of it all was a big explosion and that's a theory,
then {qa'vam nger} could mean "the theory of how everything began,"
but the Klingon phrase doesn't contain the notion of explosion.  For
the TV Show -- whether to translate it or use the English -- that's up
to you.

(6) {muchpa'} is fine for "theater" (or "theatre"), but a better
translation might be "auditorium."  Maltz agreed with your observation
that it's kind of close to {puchpa'}, but he said that, given his
viewing of Terran plays and movies, that might be apt and it didn't
bother him at all.  If "Bloomsbury Theatre" refers to the whole
building -- auditorium, lobby, dressing rooms, {puchpa'mey}), not just
the room where the performance takes place, he'd go with {much qach}.

--- end quote ---

-- 
De'vID

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