tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 16 13:59:57 1997
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"Elder" musings
On Sun, 16 Feb 1997, DaQtIq wrote:
|jIHvaD jang ghunchu'wI':
|>QIv'a' loDnI'lI'? chaq latlh Daghaj 'ej QIvbogh loDnI' DaqeltaH.
|
|ghobe'. cha' puqloD neH ghaj vavwI'. boghpa' loDnI'wI' jIboghmo',
|loDnI' nIv jIH. loDnI' QIv ghaH.
|
|I'm using this adjective as a convenient and simple way to express
|younger and older brothers. No basis in canon, just my hypothesis.
So, how *do* we say the "elder brother"? For Klingons this is not a trivial
matter. Kurn had to give into Worf's wishes on more than one occasion
because he was "the elder brother". (As the oldest surviving male member of
the family, this made him the head of the disgraced House of Mogh as well,
such as it is.) I'm also the oldest of two brothers and I'm curious.
Let's see... "I'm older than my brother" is simply: jIH qan law'
loDnI'(wI') qan puS. However, loDnI' qan just means an "old brother."
We have qup (an "elder"), as in quprIp "Council of Elders." Was this an
early name for the body that we know better as the yejquv, the "High
Council"? (If memory serves, Organia had a Council of Elders too, so this
may be what Okrand was thinking of.) I wonder if the members of the Klingon
High Council can be called "Elders" (quppu'). The dozen or so Council
members represent the highest ranking Houses (tuqmey) in the Empire, in
essence the "Elder Houses." Hmm... could the head of a House be called the
tuq qup (or "epetai" in klingonaase)? We can, of course, call him the
"leader" of the House, the tuq DevwI', but that seems so colorless. We do
know that the Leader of the High Council (or Qang, "chancellor") can also
be called the yejquv DevwI'. Isn't Gowron specifically addressed as
"DevwI'" a couple of times in KCD? He is in the novelization.
Getting back to brothers, our options for "elder/oldest brother" include:
1. loDnI' nIv - the "superior brother"
2. loDnI' qan - the "old brother"
3. loDnI' qanqu' - the "oldest brother" (as in QaQqu' and nIvqu' which,
though not actually superlatives, are both used in the two proverbs
about revenge (bortaS), cf. TKW p. 121 & 133)
4. qup loDnI' (or, loDnI' qup) - the "elder-brother" (a N-N phrase)
5. moch loDnI' (or, loDnI moch) - the "brother-superior" (as it were)
Comments? Alternatives?
BTW, was Kahless the older brother of Morath or was Morath the elder?
-- Voragh