tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 02 15:25:49 1996

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RE: KLBC: Some Words :)

December 02, 1996 7:25 AM, jatlh QetlhIS:

> Since nobody really found the time to answer my post yet and I
> do need suggestions on some words I'm gonna bug the beginner's
> grammarian this time {{;)

Hmmm . . . jabbI'IDvetlh vIjanglaw'.  DaHevbe''a'?

> As I've in the meantime found the meaning of the words for
> right and left (don't ask me why they haven't been in my word list ;),
> I'm still lacking a possiblity to express the words <north>, <east>,
> <south> and <west>. I've pondered a way to express them with
> degree numbers and <peQ>, to use something like <peQ wa'> for
> north etc, but I'm sure there's a better possibility which I'm
> just not aware of yet.

There is no good way to express these.  We don't even know if Klingons use 
them at all.  This has been discussed a lot.  Someone came up with describing 
things relative to the direction of the planetary spin.  The simple fact is, 
we don't know much.

Here's something we DO know: in space, Klingons can use # # # mark #.  In Star 
Trek V, Captain Kirk says the Enterprise's coordinates are "zero zero zero 
mark two."  (This is kinda stupid, since three dimensional space requires 
three coordinates to specify exact location, whether they be cartesian or 
angular coordinates).

Captain Klaa hears this and says {He pagh pagh pagh DoD cha' yInab} "Set 
course zero zero zero mark two."  Either the Klingons translate Federation 
coordinates into their own system, or they use the same system.  Either way, 
they can use it to specify directions.

For information on how courses are plotted (well, supposed to be plotted, at 
any rate) on Star Trek, see the Star Trek The Next Generation Technical Manual 
pp. 36-37.

If you must give directions on a planet's surface, I suggest you simply 
eliminate the {DoD #} part.  You might have to explain that north is {He pagh 
pagh pagh}, but besides that, normal compass directions should work.

This isn't a very Klingon solution, but since Klingons seem to have borrowed 
so many of the Federation's scientific conventions . . . (base 10, time).

> Also (since I'm doing some description work), I had trouble with
> the word 'passage', 'corridor', 'pathway'. In buildings I can
> help out with the word <tel> for a wing, and use right or left
> (although I'm not sure I can use the word 'wing' for the wing of
> a building in Hol).

You can use {He} for these ideas.  If you are talking about a tunnel, you can 
use {'och}.

> I'm about to compile a list for words which are especially good for
> building/describing nature and buildings, and plan to extend that into
> organizing the word list in a topic related one since I can't really
> get along with the unsorted list in TKD, unless somebody else tells
> me that work has already been done ;)

Klingon isn't suited to be organized into lists.  There's so much that 
requires full sentences rather than single words.  And it's verb-oriented, not 
noun-oriented.  It's so easy to start creating lists of nouns, and saying, 
"Okay, how do I say 'mailbox.'" (or whatever), when you could have explained 
this with a sentence {pawDI' De', ngaSwI'vo' vIlel.}

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 96922.4

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