qep'a' cha'maH HutDIch - New Words

This page contains a list of newly translated words provided by Dr. Okrand and Maltz.

Please refer any errors, issues, or questions to qurgh on Discord.

tlhIngan Hol	Type	English	Notes	Request
ngap	verb	be consonant	in the sense of musical consonance or sympathetic vibrations
ngapHa'	verb	be discordant, dissonant
yIr'ach	noun	close friend	gender neutral
lew	verb	bloom verb	used for flowers, but can also be used for leaves
pIw rebmugh	noun	incense	used regardless of the material the incense is made of
Qen	verb	be naked, nude
qIS	verb	be libidinous	There are also various slang terms/expressing be randy, horny Huy – be spicy, be piquant, be hot jIr qIvon – the qIvon twirls roSbe' – does not lick/use the third toe wamtaH – hunting
qurleH	noun	kur'leth	a type of weapon
rong	verb	roast, grill, broil	can be used generally, not just for how Terrans tend to ruin food
ghItlh raS	noun	desk
DItlh	verb	be unavenged
DItlhHa'	verb	be avenged
ghom'oH	noun	slit, slot	Adds the meaning of "slit". This is a thin opening, not used for things like a place on a schedule or organizational chart
Du'QamHom	noun	type of flower	closest Klingon equivalent to a sunflower
Du'Qam	noun	type of flower	bigger than your normal everyday Du'QamHom
votlh	verb	be narcissistic
ruj	verb	be physical	subject to the laws of physics; could be applied to something corporeal but also to energy
chanmon	noun	diamond	gemstone, not the shape
ruryuD	noun	rhinoceros-like animal
'eSperanto Hol	noun	Esperanto
tIlqemchaw'	noun	thingamajig
qeQvav	noun	thingamajig
lunglIH Duj	noun	helicopter	This was the most technical term Maltz knew, but there are also slang expressions see below
ghew Duj	noun	helicopter (slang)	this term is not used for a VW beetle
jIrwI' Duj	noun	helicopter (slang)	this term is not used for teacups at Disneyland
gho'lIv	noun	golf a loanword	There is also a somewhat similar Klingon game called cha'DaSvI'. Maltz wasn't clear on the rules, though he said that, like golf, it involves precisely aiming a projectile. For the Terran game, the loanword gho'lIv is most common. Maltz thought Terran golf was far too tame to be referred to as tera' cha'DaSvI'.
cha'DaSvI'	noun	a Klingon game that is similar to golf in that it involves precisely aiming a projectile	Maltz thought Terran golf was far too tame to be referred to as tera' cha'DaSvI'.
wIllul	noun	a game somewhat similar to bowling
HuQ'am	noun	gender	identity
ghaQpey'	noun	sex	biological
SIr'eq	noun	unit of radioactive decay	Maltz didn't know how this compared to becquerel.
yI'De'	noun	cervid-like animal

This section of the page lists new words and information from Dr. Okrand and Maltz that came to us via DeSDu' and his translation of Toki Pona: the Language of Good

tlhIngan Hol	Type	English	Notes
chap	verb	be official, authenticated, authorized, legitimate
Dol mI'	noun	integer	This term was shared in the context of discussing grammatical plurality/singularity: "Dol and ghom can be used to indicate singularity and plurality in grammar: Dol DIp, ghom DIp. (An integer, by the way, is Dol mI'.)"
HghHghHgh	noun	onomatopoetic exclamation for laughing	HghHghHgh is sometimes used, as is HghHgh. These are onomatopoetic exclamations. There's a some standardization, but also lots of variation and creativity.
mIllogh mIr	noun	comic strip	Maltz said mIllogh mIr was good for comic strip (or comic). Interestingly, despite its literal meaning, it's used whether there are a number of panels (as in a comic book or most newspaper comics) or just a single panel (like most political cartoons). To specify a single-panel cartoon, one usually says mIllogh meyrI'. This is used whether the shape of the panel is actually a square or not.
mIllogh meyrI'	noun	single-panel cartoon
mIllogh ngutlh	noun	hieroglyph	… a hieroglyph corresponds to a linguistic element (word, affix, sound, whatever) whereas a pictogram corresponds to a concept or idea. Hieroglyphics is a form of writing; pictograms are not writing. Since ngutlh refers specifically to symbols used to represent language, mIllogh ngutlh makes sense for hieroglyph. A hieroglyphic writing system is a form of logography, that is, a system in which, basically, a character represents a word. So mIllogh ngutlh could be used for the broader logograph as well as hieroglyph. In the Toki Pona book, there's a table of hieroglyphs. In the introduction to this table, it seems the terms hieroglyph and logogram could be used interchangeably, so mIllogh ngutlh remains a good choice. But a distinction is made between these hieroglyphs/logograms (sitelen pona) and another set called sitelen sitelen in which logograms appear combined into single symbols rather than being displayed one after the other. Since the logograms used in the sitelen sitelen system are logograms (though not the same as the logograms in the sietlen pona system), mIllogh ngutlh can be used for these components. All of this boils down to: Sure, mIllogh ngutlh is fine for hieroglyph as used in the book.
re'chIv	noun	internal organ
Sumlugh	noun	definition	By meaning or definition, I assume you mean how a Klingon word would be defined in Klingon (or a Toki Pona word defined in Toki Pona) — that is only one language is involved. Is that correct? The word for definition (as in a monolingual dictionary) is Sumlugh. To say "X means Y" (where X is a word and Y is its meaning or definition or gloss), use ghaS, sometimes along with mu' for clarity: Y ghaS X (mu'). A colloquial (or perhaps slang) way of expressing the definition of a word within the same language — not when translating — is to use 'ang instead of ghaS: Y 'ang X (mu'). X could, of course, be a phrase. If so, it can be followed by either mu' or mu'mey, more frequently the former.
to'qIpo'na Hol	noun	Toki pona	In Toki Pona, the stress is on the first syllable of each word. If it's important to capture that in the Klingon transliteration, consider to'qIpo'na (or even to'qIypo'na).
wot tam	noun	stative verb
wot chuS	noun	non-stative verb

Notes on the last two words:

Some Klingon grammarians have referred to "stative verbs" as wotmey tam (as opposed to, of course, wotmey chuS).

Dr. Okrand noted that "Using (DIp/wot) DelwI' is fine, I think, for adjective/adverb" (with reference to languages that use those parts of speech)

About pre-verbs Dr. Okrand said "wot nungwI' makes sense to me. Klingon does not have them as a grammatical category, so there's no traditional Klingon term."

Regarding (grammatical) particles, he said ""Particle" is probably the chuviest of the chuvmey. Generally speaking, in linguistic terminology, a particle is a part of speech that's used with something else (goes with a verb or noun, say), but that, by itself, doesn't mean anything (though it may, in other contexts, be meaningful and a specific part of speech). In English, "up" in phrases like "wash up," "look up" (as in "look up a word in the dictionary"), "hurry up" can be considered a particle, while "up" in phrases like "up in the sky" or "look up" (look upwards) it's a preposition. How do particles work in Toki Pona? How are they — as a group — distinguished from other parts of speech? Or are they true chuvmey — just everything that doesn't have another name? I suspect that's the case — and, if so, chuv is probably fine!…