tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 04 14:45:52 1997

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Re: Analysis of new Skybox cards

On Thu, 3 Jul 1997 19:42:48 -0700 (PDT)  Bill Willmerdinger 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> This is may or may not be the first study of the text of the newest
> Skybox cards (I haven't gotten my email yet today) but I had to do it
> anyway.

I especially appreciate it when you post typos which appear in 
this sort of canon Skybox text. I don't know where I could get 
these cards and it is important to me to not have corrupted 
canon.
 
> ------
> 
> S31 {Hegh bey}  Death Howl
> 
> A new word already!  Yea!  And, as Lawrence points out in his column
> "The Return of Maltz", Marc's warped sense of humor is all too evident. 
> {bey} appears to be a noun, meaning "a howl".

Meanwhile, by this logic, the word also means "display" since it 
was used in a similar way on the Klingon CD as a separate word 
always paired with another noun: {betleH bey, nuH bey, quv bey}. 
Okrand has never shown this word alone. It seems difficult to 
assume that it has a meaning alone [later I saw the example 
below of beyHom, bey, bey'a'.
 
> {HeghDI' tlhIngan SuvwI' pagh tlhIngan SuvwI' HoHlu'DI' Heghtay lulop
> latlh tlhInganpu'.}
> "As soon as a Klingon warrior dies, or as soon as someone kills a
> Klingon warrior, other Klingons celebrate the Death Ritual."
> 
> No new words in this sentence, but we finally see how Okrand uses
> {latlh}.  It is apparently a "pseudo-number" similar to {Hoch},
> {HochHom} and {'op}, and goes before the noun it modifies.
> 
> {Heghtay luloptaHvIS chaH chaq bey SeQ lujach.}
> "While they celebrate the Death Ritual, perhaps they scream a cermonial
> howl."
> 
> Another new word: {SeQ}.  Based on the English translation of the text,
> this would be a stative verb meaning "be ceremonial".  And {bey} is
> definitely a noun .

And {jach} is used as a transitive verb with {bey SeQ} as 
object, and {bey} is used without another noun preceeding it. 
That's one jam-packed piece of canon.

> {Heghpu'bogh tlhIngan mInDu' lupoSmoHlu'.}
> "Someone opens the eyes of the Klingon who has died."
> 
> Okrand seems to be remembering the {lu-} prefix on his {-lu'} verbs now!
> 
> {beyHom bey bey'a' jachtaH latlh tlhInganpu'.}
> "The other Klingons cry out small howls, howls, great howls."
> 
> This is mega-weird.  If I didn't have the English text of the card I'd
> be completely lost.  This is apparently how you express a series of
> events through time...??????  I can see how he's thinking "crescendo"
> here, but I'm not sure how I'd do this with other nouns.  There ought to
> be a {je} on that list, oughtn't there?

Well, perhaps {je} is as optional with multiple nouns as {vaj} 
is with {-chugh}. Similarly, things are clearer when it is 
included. Since this shows three nouns with no conjunction, and 
we've seen three nouns with one conjunction at the end, I'd 
still be unsurprised if he puts in two conjunctions someday. He 
has already put a conjunction between two nouns in ST5, but we 


considered it a fluke and ignored it, since it clearly violated 
the rules in TKD. Maybe conjuctions are just plain optional and 
can go anywhere after the first noun? I'll stick to TKD rules 
for now.

I'm not so sure about the crescendo thing. That's not how it 
looks when they do it on the CD or TV show, and while verbs do 
seem to follow each other like that to indicate time sequences, 
we have not seen nouns do that, and the English translation does 
not suggest that to me.

> {yay 'oS bey.  'IQ pagh.}
> "The howl represents victory.  No one is sad."

First use of {pagh} as "no one"?

> {Heghpu'bogh latlhpu' ghuHmoH bey.}
> "The howl alerts others who have died."

This unsurprisingly confirms {-pu'} on {latlh} when referring to 
other people, and is the first canon I've noted using {ghuHmoH}.

> {ghoS tlhIngan SuvwI' maq.}
> "It proclaims, 'A Klingon warriors comes.'"
>
> Obviously, {maq} "proclaim" is a verb is saying, like {jatlh}, {ja'},
> and {tlhob}.

Yep.
 
> -------
> 
> S32  {'oy'naQ}  Painstick
> 
> {nentay loptaHvIS tlhIngan potlh tlhIngan 'oy'naQ'e'.}
> "While a Klingon celebrates the Rite of Ascension, the Klingon painstick
> is important."

Note use of {-'e'} for emphasis.
 
> {SIQwI' lu'oy'moHmeH juppu'Daj 'oy'naQmey lo' chaH.}
> "His friends cause pain to the enduree using painsticks."

Shouldn't that be "endurer"? This person is, after all, doing 
the enduring, not receiving the enduring. He may be the 
"hurtee", but he is the "endurer". Why doesn't he hire me as an 
editor? Also, note {'oy'moH} lending little credance to those 
who want to use {'oy'} transitively. Also note, this could be 
translated, "In order to hurt the endurer, they used his 
friends' painsticks." That's not quite the same thing... A comma 
would really make this clearer...

> {SuvwI' qa' patlh veb chavlaHmeH tlhIngan lo'chu' chaH.}
> "They use them so that the Klingon can achieve higher rank of the spirit
> of the warrior."
> 
> {veb} is new.  Looks like another stative verb meaning "be higher" or
> "be more developed".  If it's "be higher" I'd guess that a clarification
> like "(in rank)" might apply, since it's not physical height we're
> talking about (that's {jen}).  If "be more developed" is closer, then
> why not {'Itlh}?  Also, {patlh} must be any rank in a heirarchy, and not
> just military rank.  Probably Klingons see all heirarchical systems as
> military or paramilitary, so they'd have no problem thinking {patlh}
> when confronted with "deacon, priest, monsiegnor, bishop, archbishop,
> cardinal, Pope."

I'm listing it in the New Words list as "be higher (in rank, 
status)".

> {toDujDaj toblu'.}
> "Someone proves his courage."
> 
> {wej 'ujmey 'ab 'oy'naQ.}
> "A painstick measures(?) three (somethings)."
> 
> A double whammy!  The English says "Painsticks are a little over one
> meter long."  {'uj} is then obviously a unit of length *much* shorter
> than a kellikam - probably about 14" (one meter is 39.4 inches).  My
> best guess for {'ab}, obviously the verb of the sentence, is that it
> means "is measured to be"; the subject is the thing being measured and
> the object is the measurement.  It could also refer srtictly to length;
> I wouldn't be surprised to see *three* verbs of measurement, one each
> for length, width and height.
> 
> {chIch vay' 'oy'moHmeH 'oy'naQ 'ul law' tlhuD 'oH.}
> "The painstick emits many (something), for the purpose of intentionally
> causing someone pain."
> 
> NOTE:  In HolQeD, it says "... 'oy'naQ 'vI law' tlhuD 'oH} - the {'vI}
> should be {'ul}!  I checked the card twice to be sure.
> 
> The English says it "emits a highly-charged shock".  {tlhuD} is
> obviously "emit".  From the context, {'ul} looks to be a unit of
> electricity, probably voltage (as anyone who's played with a Van de Graf
> generator knows, it isn't the voltage that's harmful, but the amperage!)

But is it a measure of electricity or of pain or of electric 
shock?

> ------
> 
> S33  {So'wI'}  Cloaking Device
> 
> {Hoch tlhIngan DujDaq So'wI' jomlu'}.
> "Someone installs a cloaking device on all Klingon ships."
> 
> {jom} apparently means "install".  I thought at first "equip" but you
> equip the ship, not the cloaking device.
> 
> {puvlaHbogh Duj ngabmoHlaw' So'wI'}.
> "The cloaking device apparently causes to vanish the ship which can
> fly."
> 
> HolQeD has {puVlaHbogh DujngabmoHlaw' So'wI'} which is obviously a
> typo.  On the other hand, the text doesn't make all that much sense.  I
> think {puvlaHbogh} probably should be {puvlaHtaHvIS}, unless I missed
> the meaning entirely.

Maybe he is just making a statement about the ship's ability to 
fly (as opposed to a sea ship, which can't). Note the 
intransitive use of {puv}, for those pilots out there who want 
to describe "flying an airplane". That's probably {puvmoH} or 
{chIj} or even {Degh ra'}.

> {boq lucherDI' tlhIngan wo' romuluS Hov wo' je So'wI' cham Soqpu'
> tlhIngan wo' chaq tampu'.}
> "As soon as the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire set up an
> alliance, the Klingon Empire gained cloaking device technology, perhaps
> they exchanged it."

[Probably exchanged it for PRISONERS]

> The first part is clear enough.  We see {cham} by itself for the first
> time, meaning "technology" and obviously a noun.  (This still leaves
> unclear what it means in {chamwI'} "technician".)  

No more than it is unclear what {Degh} means in {DeghwI'}. Look 
at the words as a whole without taking them apart and getting 
confused by it. It's okay to have irregular words. Okrand can do 
that.

Meanwhile, in both language, this is a runon sentence. He really 
needs a good editor like me...

> {Soq} is unknown but
> looks to mean "gain"... unless this is another typo and the card reads
> {Suq} "acquire".  (I don't have this card yet, so I can't check.) 

Whichever happened, it looks like the {-pu'} is a mistake. 
Otherwise, they had already gained the technology when they 
formed the alliance. He needs an editor... Unless, of course we 
got the technology first, causing the Romulans to become 
interested in an alliance...

> Finally, the {chaq tampu'} seems an odd fit; I don't know why it's
> atcked on to this sentence and not separate.

It's runon in both English and Klingon.
 
> {chaq romuluSnganpu'vaD pIvghor cham lunobpu' tlhInganpu'.}
> "Perhaps the Klingons gave warp drive technology to the Romulans."

Well, the first Romulan ships WERE Klingon birds of prey, after 
all...
 
> {HoS law'qu' natlhmo' So'wI' QaptaHvIS So'wI' QaplaHbe' nuHmey.}
> "Because the cloaking device drains LOTS of power, weapons cannot
> function while the cloaking device functions."
> 
> {natlh} is apparently a transitive verb meaning "drain", or perhaps
> "consume (power)".

Also, we have confirmation of {law'} meaning "much", since 
{law'qu'} is translated as "LOTS" while measuring something one 
does not count.

> {ngongmeH wa' DujDaq nuHmey nISbe'bogh So'wI' jomlu'pu'.}
> "Someone installed a cloaking device which did not disrupt the weapons
> in one ship as for the purpose of an experiment."
> 
> {jom} again.  Also, English text for this line and the next were not
> given in HolQeD.  Meanings are best guesses.

Yep. Since he didn't use the Krankorian {-'e'} to disambiguate, 
it could also mean "...HAD installed weapons which were not 
disrupted by the cloaking device..." Not much difference in 
effect, but the specialness of the weapons or the cloaking 
device are not revealed.

> {HovpoH Hut vagh cha' wa' vI' jav Dujvam 'aghlu'pu' 'ach Qaw'lu'pu'.}
> "Someone (?) this ship on Stardate 9521.6 but someone destroyed it."
> 
> Hooookay!  "Stardate" is {HovpoH}.  {vI'} means "point"?  Hmmm. 
> {vatlhvI'} means "percent" and {vatlh} is "hundred", so perhaps {vI'}
> means "decimal".  In any case, we now know how to do decimal numbers in
> Klingon without working around the subject using percents.  Pi = {wej
> vI' wa' loS wa' vagh Hut}.  (Whoa.  If Klingons are "never approximate",
> how do they handle numbers like pi and e?)

Obviously, they refer to them as pi and e. Those are precise 
numbers, after all. They just don't LOOK that way when you 
APPROXIMATE them with decimals.

> {'agh} is *very* obscure.  Without an English translation I have no clue
> as to what this may mean.  
> 
> -------
> 
> Anyway, those're my first impressions.  If this is any indication of the
> amountof new vocabulary in Okrand's new book, Maltz must have been in a
> *very* accomodating mood....

I am both happy and tired. I just updated four dictionaries. I 
don't know how to list {vI'}. Noun? chuvmey? "Decimal point in 
spoken number"?
 
> -- 
> Qob la' (tlh.w.D. quttaj ra'wI')
> tlhIngan Hol yejHaD qhojwI'
> 
> [email protected]
> http://www.frontiernet.net/~qob/

charghwI'

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