tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 03 21:10:28 1996
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crows, kraw'zamey, BOPOHbI and... Gowron
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: crows, kraw'zamey, BOPOHbI and... Gowron
- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 96 23:10:17 CDT
- In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 3 Sep 1996 17:50:03 -0700
>I know the name "Gowran" isthe slavic pronounciation of the word "crow."
>I know it because someone on this list said it. I was wondering if that
>someone could tell me any more translations of the word.
>
>Maddalena Romano
I think you're on the wrong track here. I'm not sure what you mean by a
"slavic pronounciation" of "crow", but in Russian (for example) there are
two often confused words for these black birds:
BOPOH (VO-ron) "raven"
BOPOHA (va-RO-na) "crow"
My knowledge of other Slavic languages is somewhat shakey--though I did do
some classes in comparative Slavics many years ago for a B.A. in Russian
Language and Literature--but I have been speaking Russian for nearly 25
years. I cannot think of anything similiar to "Gowron" you could be
thinking of. Do you have any more information?
Okrand rendered "Gowron" as {ghawran} in the new SkyBox cards 25 & 26 and
doesn't seem to relate to any known word in tlhIngan Hol. (There is no
*{ghaw} or *{ghaw'}.) The closest I can think of is {ghar} "conduct
diplomacy}, but that doesn't seem to be an option any more in light of
the SkyBox data.
And for what it's worth, in the novel _Kahless_, Friedman frequently
mentions the "kraw'za" (pl. "kraw'zamey"): a black, carrion-eating bird.
In spite of the {-mey} suffix, this isn't tlhIngan Hol.
I'm afraid that "Gowron" is just a standard Paramount two-syllable made-up
alien name, like most of the others. Okrand has just back-fit it into
his tlhIngan Hol phonology.
But I could be wrong. The name "B'Elanna" DOES seem to have a clever
pedigree. Remind me to post my pet theory on this tomorrow.
-- Voragh
(whose all-time favorite Russian song is "Chornyi voron" [The Black
Raven], as sung by Zhanna Bichevskaya)
__________________________________________________________________________
Steven L. Boozer | The fact that an opinion has been widely
University of Chicago Library | held is no evidence whatever that it is
----------------------------- | not utterly absurd.
[email protected] | -- Bertrand Russell