tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Nov 30 11:06:29 1995
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Re: Colors and Phonemes
- From: [email protected] (MR PAUL J COFFEY)
- Subject: Re: Colors and Phonemes
- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 13:57:58 EST
ghitlh Qogh.
>If a language has 3 color words...
Vietnamese, for instance, uses the same word for blue and green, but
the Vietnamese speakers have no trouble distinguishing those two colors.
>As for the length of the tlhingan tongue...
All the sounds of tlhIngan are found in one or more tera'ngan
languages. tlh in Nahuatl, for instance, several in Arabic.
Arabic has a large number of phonemes in the velar-glottal-pharingeal
area, but Arabs have the same articulators as the rest of Homo sap.
>> qeSmIv HarghwI'
>What does Hargh mean? I couldn't find it in TKD.
> maSqa'
That's a long story {{:-) I'll give you the short version:
The name "Coffey" in Irish comes from "Ui'Cobhthaigh" later "O'Coffey."
"Cobhthaigh" is the genitive of "Cobhthach" which means "victorious."
This leads us to the involvement of a member of my family in an
organization called the Klingon Strike Force:
A certain thlIngan family, later resident on a planet on the rimward
side of the Empire, was named "charghwI." That name, over the centuries,
gradually became "HarghwI'." The tera'ngan say "Khargwiy." Family
tradition has it that the initial /ch/ becoming /H/ had something to do
with one of our ancestors captaining a ship named "HeS," but there are no
substantiating records, and the individual concerned long since sailed in
the Black Fleet.
Since William Martin was using "charghwI'" when I got here. I chose
one of the invented family's names. "qeSmIv" had been chosen as somewhat
analogous to "William," BTW, which means "Vili's helmet." That's easier to
see in the German "Wilhelm" than in the English. Vili, or Vil, was one of
the Vanir, old Teuton gods.
Qapla'
qeSmIv HarghwI'