Word: "Instant, specific point in time, punctual date, time coordinate" (temporal deictic nouns)

(0) Necessity in scientific and temporal precisionAccording to **Conversational Klingon** about punctuality: "Klingons pride themselves on punctuality, so it is important to be precise when referring to time. Though Klingons are sometimes inaccurate, they are never approximate." As a technologically advanced, space-faring civilization, Klingons should logically support the kind of temporal precision required in advanced physics, computer science, and navigation. Concepts like: – Coordinate-based time (e.g. "at instant t…"), – Differential calculus (e.g. limits as Δt → 0), – Relativity (coordinate time vs. proper time) all require linguistic means to refer to an exact point in time, **not an interval or duration**. (1) Existing vocabulary insufficiency Current temporal vocabulary in Klingon refers to spans of time or generalized moments: – {poH}: period of time – {lup}: second of time – {poHHom, lup, lupHom}: small time units – Even {'otlh poH}: "Planck time", still a span (smallest unit, not zero duration). – {HovpoH} and {tera' poH} are calendar date which only express precision down to the day range. Furthermore: words like {jajvam} ("this day") or {repvam} ("this hour") refer to extended durations, not true instants. There is no noun in the existing corpus that clearly denotes a dimensionless, singular point in time. (2) Analogy with spatial deictics and morphology Klingon allows spatial specificity using: – {naDev} ("hereabouts", proximal) – {pa'} ("thereabouts", distal) These are semantically analogous to spatial coordinates. In parallel, temporal deictics like: DaH ("now") ngugh ("then") But these are adverbs, not nouns. However, the language allows for nominalization via known morphology: {naDev} = {Quvvam} (proximal location) {pa'} = {Quvvetlh} (distal location) See: {jajvam} = "this day, today" / {repvam} = "this hour". By this logic, temporal equivalents should exist: "?nowabouts" = temporal coordinate proximal to now. {'a'ren} could arguably be a match. "?thenabouts" temporal coordinate relative to some other time, past or future. To generate these, a base noun for "instant" is needed, just as {Quv} spatial coordinates. (3) Semantic analogy {jaH} / {vIb}. {vIb} = travel in time, usually only posible towards the future ({vIbHa'} is available when discussing time travel back in time). It mirrors motion verbs such as {jaH} ("go"). The existence of the time travel verbs {vIb} and {vIbHa'} implies an underlying temporal deixis that can be integrated into verbal temporal motion. By analogy a time-coordinate noun would allow similar integration into temporal localization. With such a word, Klingon would also gain the ability to express scientific punctuality with {poHQuvDaq} = "at instant t". Note: I assume that {vIb} is travel forward in time "faster" than normal through relativistic effect or with some time travel narrative device. Technically, time travel at normal speed is simply {loS} = "wait". (4) Suggestion: {poHQuv}. No current noun (e.g. poH) semantically qualifies. {poH Quv} (with a space) could be ambiguous because {poH} is explicitly a period of time. A reasonable new gloss candidate could be {?poHQuv} without the typographic space, giving rise to the temporal deictic nouns {?poHQuvvam} = "?nowabouts" and {?poHQuvvetlh} = "?thenabouts". TL;DR: Remove the space in {poH Quv}.