tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 07 11:11:11 1995
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Re: ranks and titles (was Suppletion)
>Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 08:20:28 -0800
>From: "Rick Young" <[email protected]>
> I'm also curious, after watching Star Trek Generations, if pIn'a'
>would be used to translate both Master (TKD page 183) and Mistress
>(the title which Lursa was called in that movie)? Except in the
>Hamlet translation I have not seen any Hol terms which differentiate
>between sexes (Hamlet has ta'be' etc.). The fact that ghaH doesn't
>differentiate leads me to believe pIn'a' wouldn't either (nor would
>HoD, joH, or qaH) it's only in the english translation that we see a
>difference. Now I should point out that I completely agree with the
>term ta'be' for queen, this sort of distinction would be needed.
>Any comments?
I'm inclined to agree that terms like HoD, joH, qaH, and pIn['a'] should
definitely apply to both sexes indiscriminately. Klingon does not appear
to be a language that recognizes much in the way of grammatical (or
semantic) gender. I particularly like the "qaH" unites "yes, sir/ma'am"
into a nice simple constant (cf. the first episode of Voyager, when
Ens. Kim addresses Capt. Janeway as "Sir," and she points out that while
Starfleet regulations do mandate "Sir" for superiors of both sexes, she
prefers "Captain"... and I don't think I blame her). "ta'" may be a little
tougher for me to buy, but that's surely just my biases from English. I
think that Klingons talking about a female ruler (either their own reigning
Empress, if such a thing happened, or the ruler of another race) would
probably use "ta'" or "voDleH" and not mark it for sex at all. That said,
I think we still do need "ta'be'" in Hamlet, since, twist the history
though we might, Hamlet reflects human biases, not Klingon ones. So it's
very important for understanding the assorted cultural nuances and sexual
stereotypes and cultural norms at play in Hamlet that the audience know
that Claudius is the reigning king, male, and Gertrude his wife, female,
formerly wife to his brother, Hamlet.
~mark