tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 22 04:38:56 1993

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Klingon for "grey" (was: Re: Question from STrek-l)



  Captain Krankor said:
  > ... As for "gray", that is a much more glaring omission.

  [email protected] (The Songbringer -- Marnen to the common folk)
replied on Wed 21 Jul 93 17:49:05 EDT (Subject: Re: Question from STrek-l):-
  > Not necessarily. Klingon ... has terms for {WHITE} (chiS), {BLACK} (qij),
{RED-orange} (Doq), and {blue-green-yellow} (SuD), where caps indicate the
principal hue in the range.... typical Berlin & Kay Stage III language
(whether IIIa or IIIb is hard to tell, since the difference lies in whether
>SuD< is principally green or yellow). ... one can use >wov< and >qij< as
shades (see below), or use descriptive words as Erich was trying to do.

  Whatever the faults of Klingons' colour vision compared with that of
Earthmen, they surely had a word for "grey", since black / grey / white aren't
colours but light / dark variations. Most likely Marc Okrand etc never
happened to need a Klingon for "grey", so he never invented one. Compare the
discussions about colour words in Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin languages in
TolkLang messages 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16, 1.17, 1.18, 1.19,
1.20, 1.20, 1.21, 1.22, 1.24, 1.25, 1.26, 1.27, 1.29, 1.31, 2.14, 2.97



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