This unit introduces possessive suffixes for beings capable of speech—for example, my father, your sister, her brother etc.—as well as Klingon kinship terms, i.e. names for various relatives.

Possessive suffixes for beings capable of speech

-wI' my
-lI' your (belonging to one person)
-Daj his, her, its
-ma' our
-ra' your (belonging to several people)
-chaj their

Notice that, -Daj his/her and -chaj their are the same as for things not capable of speech—the others differ by ending in j for inanimate objects but in ' for beings capable of speech.

Do not mix them up in the company of Klingons and refer, for example, to puqlIj your child as if it were an object.

Note that these suffixes are not used when you are explicitly indicating the possessor with a name or a noun. For instance, the captain's mother would be HoD SoS. The suffixes are only used to refer to the possessor with generic pronouns, like English your, his, their, etc. So his mother would be SoSDaj.

Kinship terms

The Klingon kinship term system is quite a bit more specific than in English, which often merges similar relatives together (e.g. cousin can refer to any grandchild of any of your grandparents that is not your brother or sister, and an uncle can be related to you by blood or by marriage). On the other hand, Klingon makes no distinction between cousins and nephews/nieces, unlike English.

Terms for lineal relatives

Names for lineal relatives (direct ancestors or descendants) map pretty neatly to English, since English has separate words for pretty much all of these:

vavnI' grandfather, SoSnI' grandmother
vav father, SoS mother
loDnal husband, be'nal wife
loDnI' brother, be'nI' sister
puq child; puqloD son, puqbe' daughter
puqnI' grandchild; puqnI'loD grandson, puqnI'be' granddaughter

This unit also includes the form vavoy daddy, which is an affectionate term, usually for one's own daddy. The suffix -oy in that word will be introduced properly and used more widely under "Use Diminutives" later on.

Terms for collateral relatives

Names for aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, and nieces are more specific than in English-speakers of languages such as Chinese, Swedish, or Turkish may be more at home here (though Klingon makes no distinction between elder and younger siblings).

Parents' generation, father's side (paternal uncles and aunts)

Your father's brother is your tennuS, and your tennuS's wife is your 'e'mamnal.

Your father's sister is your 'e'mam, and your 'e'mam's husband is your tennuSnal.

Parents' generation, mother's side (maternal uncles and aunts)

Your mother's brother is your 'IrneH and your 'IrneH's wife is your me'nal.

Your mother's sister is your me' and your me's husband is your 'IrneHnal.

Your and your children's generations (cousins, nephews, and nieces)

Your cousins are divided into parallel cousins (children of father's brother/mother's sister, i.e. of the sibling of the same gender as your parent) and cross cousins (children of father's sister/mother's brother).

Your parallel cousins are your tey'pu'; they are tey'loD if male and tey'be' if female. Your cross cousins are your lorpu'; they are lorloD if male and lorbe' if female. Klingons tend to be closer to their parallel cousins than to their cross cousins.

These same names are also used for your nephews and nieces—parallel nephews and nieces (if you're a man, then your brother's children; if you're a woman, then your sister's children) are tey'pu' as well, while children of your sibling of the opposite gender as you are your lorpu'.

Groups of tey'pu' and lorpu' together are your vInpu' cousins, nephews and nieces (in general); one of them may also be called a vIn cousin, nephew, or niece.

More distant cousins (second cousin once removed, grandnephew, etc.) are yurpu'.

More general terms

An 'e'nal is an in-law in general: someone who married into your family, whether father-in-law, sister-in-law, uncle-in-law or whatever.

A tuqnIgh is a member of your house (tuq house), i.e. your extended family unit or clan.

Finally, there are three verbs for to marry: what a man does is Saw, while what a woman does is nay. These specific verbs are usually preferred, but if the situation does not allow you to be specific you can say tlhogh, which can be used by either partner for to marry.

quvmoH to honor

You have previously seen quv to be honored, but one can also honor another with quvmoH to honor. The -moH ending is a suffix that you will learn later in the course. For now just treat them as separate but related verbs.