tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 26 08:38:30 1996
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Re: Interview with Okrand
>Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 21:45:49 -0800
>From: [email protected]
>In a message dated 96-02-19 17:51:16 EST, you write:
>>But the most famous Klingon food is probably gagh.
>> >
>> > That word, I think, comes from me, but it got mangled a little bit. I
>> > made up a word for "serpent" or "worm" (ghargh). When the actors said
>> > it, the pronunciation changed a bit. So I decided that ghargh was a
>worm
>>
>> > that was crawling on the ground, and gagh was the same creature when
>> > prepared as food.
>This is a third spelling/pronunciation for "serpent worm cooked as food." We
>already have qagh in TKD and ghaq as spoken in TNG. But, because this one
>comes from MO most recently, can we take this one as the correct spelling?
No, we can take it as a typo (much like "*bIganmo'" in TKD p. 175 and
"*gar" in TKD p. 179). Remember, Klingon has no "g," and it's going to
take more than an example or three to make me believe that a new *LETTER*
is being introduced.
The idea of a creature having a different name when considered as food is
not at all unusual. Consider English: that mooing animal over there is a
cow (or a bull)... and even when dead it's a dead cow/bull. BUT when it's
considered as meat for eating, it's suddenly beef. Deer that you're about
to cook is venison; sheep are sheep unless you're going to eat them,
then they're mutton, and swine/pigs are pork when on the table
>peHruS
~mark