tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 11 08:18:53 1997
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Re: Word Origin Speculation II
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>Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 07:03:34 -0800
>From: "Kenneth Traft" <[email protected]>
>
>Posted for Glen Proechel, director of the Interstellar Language School
>
>***NOTE -- This is speculation and is NOT canon
In skimming mail ahead of where I am now, I see there's a fair amount of
harshness over "this is Glen's imagination!" and silliness like that. I
don't really see what the big deal is. Glen *says* it's speculation, and
besides, it isn't really the point. Did Okrand really think *all* these
things that Glen speculates? Consciously? I suspect not; many of them are
pretty far-fetched. Unconsciously? Also probably not. I've spoken with
Glen; he's very big on mnemonics and very good at coming up with ways of
making Klingon words (or whatever) relate to something else to give it a
better memory hook. Some of his mnemonics may be pretty stretched for most
people, but some are quite accessible (and the really far-fetched ones are
often very effective too, simply because they are so far-fetched). It
helps when you know as many languages and roots as Glen. At any rate, does
it really *matter* if Okrand didn't think all these? They're still really
cool correspondences, accidental or intentional, and can be mighty helpful
in remembering what for me is the toughest part of Klingon: the
vocabulary. Glen never said he knew Okrand's mind in this, he said he was
speculating; let a man speculate a little.
That said, it must be remembered (and I think that Glen will agree with me)
that even if we think we know what Okrand was thinking when he made his
vocabulary, we can't go off and apply our model of his thought to make up
new roots, of course! Even if we're right, it really doesn't seem
reasonable that Okrand would be perfectly consistent and algorithmic with
his lexicon-creation.
>Klingon word <<lom>> and its apparent connection to the English "loam" and
>"lam." He has made an important discovery in what I believe to be the
>Okrandian principles of lexicography. <<mol>> (note similarity to English
>word "mole", an animal which likes to dig) means "to bury, or tomb."
>Reversing it gives you <<lom>> or corpse.
I think there was a pun on this given to Polonius (who liked convoluted and
elaborate wordplay) in the KLI's Hamlet.
> Going from "m" to "n" gives you
><<nol>> the word for funeral. It seems that Okrand has some interesting
>concepts on vocabulary development and I believe that if you understand them,
>it will make the task of improving your vocabulary a lot easier.
See? That's where this comes in handy. Hell, even if our ideas of
Okrand's thought-processes are totally and completely wrong, if they work
they'll help with remembering the vocabulary. In this case at least some
of it looks likely, though even blind coincidence can't be ruled out for
these correspondences, but the cause is not as important as the effect.
>1) Puns on the English words. There are many, many examples of this. joy' =
>torture,
That one's been pointed out often. As has DaS for "boot" (since the movie
"Das Boot" inspired Paramount to hire Okrand for a Klingon language in the
first place).
> val = smart (valedictorian),
Ooh, that's a good one.
> qul = fire (cool),
Right; I remember a story like this about one of the first times Lawrence
met Robyn Stewart (Qov)... standing around a campfire, Lawrence pointed at
it and said "qul!". Robyn knew the word (vocabulary demon that she is),
but had never spoken it aloud and never put the sound together to make the
pun.
>tIq = heart (ticker),
That I've seen too...
>pI' = fat (pig),
Never thought of that one.
> Sut = clothing (suit),
That's how I always remember it. Like "Sop" for "sup"...
>ghop = hand (grope), loD = man (lord),
Didn't think of those.
>bIr = cold (brr),
Heh. I always thought it was that beer is best cold. :) (well, some beer;
I'm fond of bitter, which is served warmer).
> 'IH = beautiful (ick), tlhaq = chronometer (clock),
Yeah, seen those.
> pIn = boss (kingpin).
Hadn't thought of that one.
>2) Reversies. That is, forming synonyms or antonyms by saying the words
>backwards: megh = lunch, ghem = midnight snack, puq = child, Qup = young,
>mol = tomb, lom = corpse, noj = lend, jon = capture, SIm = calculate, mIS =
>confusion.
Only ones of these I had seen before are mol/lom and megh/ghem. The other
ones seem pretty far-fetched to me, actually. But if they help you
remember, go for it.
>3) Shortening of the English reference. Often the first part of the word to
>which Okrand is referring is used instead of the full form: Dargh = tea
>(Darjeeling), val = smart (valedictorian), HI' = dictator (Hitler)
Hadn't thought of any of these.
>4) Internal changes: In some cases synonyms are created by changing the
>middle vowel: SeS = steam, SIS = rain, SUS = wind, ghur = increase (go up),
>ghIr = decrease (go down), magh=betray, mugh = translate.
I tended to consider SIS and SuS (anyway) as onomatopoeia, sounding like
the hiss of falling rain or the rush of the winds (actually, for "SuS"
consider "sussuration"). I imagine "peD" as the sound of a small shovelful
of dry snow hitting the ground, as a memory-hook. Hadn't thought of
ghur/ghIr, but magh/mugh has been mentioned alot, and I bet it's intended:
it's just what a linguist would be *very* mindful of.
>5) Some synonyms are created by varying the initial consonant, often in
>English alphabetic order: HIjol = beam me up, HIQol = beam me down. Qorgh =
>to care for, Sorgh = to sabotage, mol = tomb, nol = funeral.
These seem a little far for me (though I had seen the Qol/jol relationship,
considering them more synonyms than antonyms).
>6) Sometimes related words share the same initial consonant. notice the
>nature words with "ng". ngem = forest, ngeng = lake, ngech = valley.
Phonaesthemes? Maybe.
>7) The most widely used trick besides puns is onomatopoeia: 'argh = get
>worse, 'ugh = heavy, Hagh = laugh, 'Iw = blood, 'oy' = it hurts, yay' =
>shocked, yIQ = wet (ick), yIH = tribble. There are many of these and they are
>easily recognizable.
Yep. :)
>8) Because they're so much fun, here are some more puns: HuD = mountain (Mt.
>Hood), Qut = vulgar (cute), bech = suffer (bitch), bIghHa' = prison (big
>house), chIrgh = temple (church), chIp = cut hair (chip), muD = atmosphere
>(mood), Dor = escort (show someone to the door), nuD = examine (nude), ghu =
>baby (goo), Hat = illegal (hot), HeD = retreat (head back), HeS = crime
>(Rudolf Hess, war criminal), HoS = power (horse power), Hot = touch (hot), Hu
>= zoo (Dr. Seuss', Who's in the Zoo), jab = serve food (job), jar, DIS =
>month, year (jar, dish), jIp = penalty (gyp), lang = thin (long), lIm = panic
>(out on a limb), luj = fail (lose), mul = stubborn (mule), muv = join (to move
>from one organization to another), nIH = steal (nick). Notice also that nIH
>means right hand, i.e., the stealing hand! ngIp = borrow (keep), lon =
>abandon (loan), lay' = promise (lie), paw' = collide (pow!), pIp = spine (a
>pipsqueak is someone who is spineless), puQ = fed up (puke) or puq = child
>(puke, spit up).
Some (most) of these seem kind of far-out to my mind, but that's just me.
ghu, Hat, I remember seeing commented on, and I've long remembered "nIH" as
"steal" and "right hand" by thinking "the hand you steal with." I suppose
the left hand is always open then? Someone once pointed out the
relationship between paw and paw' (one ends abruptly, but "arriving" is
more controlled).
>9) There are other tricks, a little more difficult to classify, but which
>deserve mention. The word for animal <<Ha'DIbaH>> comes from: Let's go! We
>shoot them!
Krankor once pointed this out to me, but in fact it probably doesn't, just
a word to cover up an actor's mouth-movements.
> The sex-specific words for marriage are interesting and seem to
>derive from German: <<Saw>> (for a man to marry) from German Schau = to look
>whereas <<nay>> (for a woman to marry) seems to come from German dialect nei
>as well as English nay for No!, since a woman usually says no! The word
><<mIr>> for chain is an interesting one because it seems to derive from Soviet
>propaganda. Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your
>CHAINS. The word MIR! peace is an ever-recurring word in Soviet propaganda.
>
>I'm sure of some of you will find this far-fetched but I doubt that it's an
>accident.
Doubt that our finding it far-fetched is an accident? :) Seriously, I do
think many of these are far-fetched. Doesn't mean they're not worth
remembering and using. I suspect more are "wrong" than you think... and
very possibly more are "right" than I think ("right" in the sense of
actually in Okrand's mind when he made the word), but I'm not even sure I
want to know the answer to that question. There are some you sort of can't
guess, like the fact (confirmed by Okrand) that "jIl" means neighbor
because he had a neighbor named Jill. And even really twisted ones are
helpful. I remember one Krankor told me, *deliberately* invented to be
twisted and far-fetched... but it helped me remember. "ghoch" means both
"destination" and "to track down." As he said, "if you fly <ghoch> (coach)
to your destination, you have to track down your luggage." I know for
certain that poking around in my brains are derivations at least as
"far-fetched" as any Glen has put here which I regularly use as mnemonics
when trying to remember Klingon words (or at least, whenever I hear the
Klingon the English "echo" rings in my head) (e.g. "Sop"/"sup" or
"Haq"/"hack" for surgery); maybe I'll try to record some of them as they
occur to me for posting here. Perhaps Okrand had them in mind too, perhaps
not. Some of them almost certainly not. But that's not all that
important.
~mark
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