In this unit, you will learn some words for talking about people. You have already seen some examples such as:
tlhIngan Klingon
tera'ngan Terran
be' woman
loD man.

Plurals again

You will also be reviewing the type 2 plural noun suffix -pu'

You may remember that -pu' is a noun suffix that pluralizes nouns describing beings capable of using language. Including Klingons, Humans, Organians, Vulcans, men and women, warriors and teachers, emperors and chancellors, potentially even sentient robots (but not in this course).

Other plurals which you have already seen are:

Body parts
Including hands and feet, arms and legs, bones and kidneys. The plural suffix for this category is -Du'.

Everything else
Including rocks and trees, plants and animals, shoes and starships, beams and waves. The plural suffix for this category is -mey.

In this unit, we'll be focusing on just the first of these suffixes, -pu'. The others are practiced in other units of the course.

While the plural suffixes can make a sentence more clear, they are in fact completely optional. The word tlhIngan can mean either Klingon or Klingons, whereas the word tlhInganpu' is explicitly plural and can only mean Klingons.

So, if you're asked to translate the sentence I see Klingons, you can respond with either:

tlhInganpu' vIlegh. I see Klingons.
or
tlhIngan vIlegh. I see one or more Klingons.

You can also sometimes distinguishing between singular and plural nouns based on the use of the verb prefixes:

SuvwI' lulegh tera'ngan. The Terrans saw the warrior. (The subject must be plural and the object must be singular because the lu- prefix must have a plural subject and singular object.)
torgh legh HoD. The captain saw Torg. (Assuming there is only one Torg, the subject must be singular, otherwise the lu- suffix would have been used.)
nov legh yaSpu'. The officers saw the aliens. (Since the subject is plural, the object must be plural, otherwise the lu- suffix would have been used.)
Dulegh tlhIngan. The Klingon saw you. (The subject must be singular because the Du- prefix must have a singular subject.)
nIlegh loD. The men saw you. (The subject must be plural because the nI- prefix must have a plural subject.)
be' wIlegh. We saw the woman. (The object must be singular because the wI- prefix must have a singular object.)
Human DIlegh. We saw the humans. (The object must be plural because the DI- prefix must have a plural object.)

quv vs. batlh

Both of the nouns quv and batlh are usually represented by the same English word honor. In English we use the word honor for a few different purposes, but Klingon distinguishes the personal accounting of honor that one earns and separates it from the honor which we talk about as an internal, philosophical concept of doing the right thing. As nouns, the official descriptions state that quv is associated with reputation, dignity, and respect and batlh is associated with integrity, rectitude, scruples, and principles.

Thus quv as a verb is usually translated as be honored and batlh as an adverb is usually translated as honorably or with honor. quv cannot be used as an adverb and batlh cannot be used as a verb.

More Klingon names

Starting from this lesson, you may also meet the following additional Klingons:

Female names: 'a'Setbur Azetbur, be'etor B'Etor, lurSa' Lursa, boqor Bokor, lurveng Lurveng, ghIrIlqa' Grilka.

Male names: cheng Chang, DuraS Duras, ghorqon Gorkon, qarghan Kargan, qImpeq K'Mpec, toral Toral, turghal Turgal, tlha'a Klaa.

Miscellaneous names: ghurlaq Gurlak, qorghlaH Korglach.

And a few non-Klingons: qIrq Kirk (male), pIqarD Picard (male), 'elvIS Elvis (male).

Note that these alien names sometimes violate Klingon spelling conventions.  *-rq* and *-rD* are not allowed consonant clusters in Klingon, but are not difficult for Klingons to pronounce, so the combinations are allowed for alien names.  You may also remember that "Worf" was not written as *worv*, but as a Klingon name is actually **wo'rIv**.

Captain Torg

Titles come after the name in Klingon, the opposite order to English. So, Captain Torg becomes torgh HoD. Rarely this can cause confusion as the same phrase can also mean Torg's captain.

ra'wI' commanding officer

The noun ra'wI' is actually made of a verb + suffix combination and you will learn how to create such words later in this course. This combination forms a noun defined as one who commands or commander, though we must be careful not to confuse this with the similar rank. Thus it is translated as commanding officer in this course. Note that a ra'wI' does not have to be an officer and this is just being used to differentiate from the rank. As a noun, ra'wI' can take all the noun suffixes including the possessive suffix -wI'. At first the word ra'wI'wI' my commanding officer may seem odd, but you will get used to it.

Vocabulary

Human – human (n)

verengan – Ferengi (n)

yoq – humanoid (n)

nov – alien (n)

jup – friend (n)

romuluSngan – Romulan (n)

DIvI' – federation (n)

voq – trust (v)

Sub – hero (n)

Sub'a' – great hero (n)

rejmorgh – worrywart (n)

'eDjen – arrogant person (n)

nuch – coward (n)

vum – scumbag, jerk (n)

pong – name (n)

petaQ – petakh (n)

Da – behave (as), act (like) (v)

'I'SeghIm – curmudgeon (n)

HoD – captain (n)

Sa' – general (rank) (n)

Sogh – lieutenant (n)

beq – crewmember (n)

magh – betray (v)

maghwI' – traitor (n)

HeSwI' – criminal (n)

Qang – chancellor (n) 

joH – Lord, Lady (n)

quv – be honored (by others) (v)

quv – honor (reputation, dignity, and respect) (n)

Hutlh – lack (v)

vang – act, take action (v)

vaj – warriorhood, ideal warrior (n)

batlh – honorably, with honor (adv)

batlh – honor (integrity, rectitude, scruples, and principles) (n)

qur – be greedy (v)

tlhIb – be incompetent (v)

'ol – verify (v)