tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Dec 07 09:15:49 1997

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Re: N,S,E,W



Okay, here's my personal scoop on the whole "directions" business, if anyone
is interested.

We see very little direction-giving in canonical Klingon.  Most of the time
we get things like {He chu' ghoS, DIvI' neHmaH} "New course. Federation
Neutral Zone" (ST3) and {nImbuS wej wIghoS, He yInab!} "Plot course for
Nimbus III" (ST5) (well, actually he said {maghoS}, but I consider it an
error, and it's not relevant here anyway).  This is all fine and dandy, and
perfectly usable to us grounded Earthers.

On the other hand, we do see an actual course bearing used once.  {He pagh
pagh pagh DoD cha' yInab} "Plot course zero-zero-zero-mark-two" (ST5).
First Kirk says this (actually he calls them coordinates, but that's not
enough information for true 3-dimensional coordinates), then Klaa repeats it
to Vixis, in Klingon.

Now, there are two possibilities.  First, Klingon and Terran course bearing
notation may be identical, in which case, course 000 mark 2 means exactly
the same to both cultures.  I find this highly unlikely, since it's fairly
clear that Terran and Klingon space travel evolved separately, as must have
their coordinate systems.  It's possible that the Klingons borrowed this
from the Terrans, but I consider this extremely unlikely.  In any case, you
could give any direction you wanted by a simple compass heading.  Since
we're all on Earth, we know exactly which way course 000 is, and there's no
problem using it on this planet.

The second possibility is that the Klingon system and the Terran system are
different, and that Klaa was simply translating what Kirk was saying, and
allowing Vixis or his ship's computer to convert the course into Klingon.
Hey!  That means that it's not unreasonable to use a Terran directional
system when associating with Terrans.  And guess what?  We're all Terrans,
on Terra!  Well, why not just translate our own system directly into
Klingon, without worrying what they'd use on their own planet.  Unless
you're planning a trip to Kronos you'll have no problem (and if you're
holding out on us concerning the existence of alien space travel, I'll pound
you!).

So use course bearings with the warm, fuzzy feeling that any Klingons you
may meet on Earth will understand you perfectly.  When we find out the true
details of their methods, you STILL probably won't be able to use it on
Earth, anyway.

SuStel
Stardate 97933.9






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