tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Mar 01 11:34:50 1997

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qechmeywIj law'qu' vIlab

   rut De'wI'wIj vIlo'laHbe'mo', tlhIngan Hol qechmeywIj vIlabmeH bIH
vIqontaH.  bIH DIja'chuqmeH 'ej SuQubchu'meH neH qechmeyvam vIQub - vItbej
bIH 'e' vIjatlhbe'qu'. DaH tlhIHvaD qechmey puS vIlab. tugh latlhmey vIlab
je.

1) Noun-noun nouns vs. Verb-noun nouns:
   Some Klingonists have suggested that particular verbs, while not stated
directly in TKD, are also nouns. This assumption is based on the fact that
they appear first in several complex nouns, and so are considered to be the
1st noun in a noun-noun compound. For example, <QongDaq>, <HIvDuj>, and
<rI'Se'>.  At first glance, it would indeed appear that <Qong>, while not
explicitly stated in TKD, is the noun "sleep."
   However, I believe that another explanation of these words could be that
they are abbreviations for longer phrases, which have been shortened over
time, just as <qa'meH> (replacement) has been shortened from <quvqa'meH>.
   Rather than <QongDaq> & <HIvDuj> as noun-noun constructions, they may be
phrases that were shortened.  The verb suffixes <-meH> or <-bogh> may have
originally been attached to the verb, but over time they could have dropped.
(In some cases one suffix may be more plausible. I'd expect <QongmeH Daq>
rather than <Qongbogh Daq>)  So, these words may actually be derived from
<QongmeH Daq> and <HIvbogh Duj>, which are perfectly grammatically clauses as
far as I know, instead of <QongDaq> as <*Qong > (n) + <Daq> (n).

2) <bIH> vs. <chaH>
   <bIH> refers to they, when "they" are non-speakers.  <chaH> refers to
they, when "they" are capable of speaking. But what is used when "they"
refers to both speakers & non-speakers?
   For example:
<qachDaq targhDaj yachpu' matlh. Do'Ha' chaH/bIH HoH jorwI'.>
"Maltz had stroked his targ in the building.  Unfortunately, an explosive
killed them."
   The pronoun could simply be replaced with <targh matlh je> and solve the
problem. However, it might help to know whether one pronoun overrules the
other.
   In Spanish, for example, if I refer to my male friends, I would say
"amigos." If I talked about my female friends, I would say "amigas." But if I
referred to them together, both male & female friends, they would be "amigos"
because masculine predominates in Spanish.
  It would be interesting to see whether a Klingon would say bIH or chaH when
referring to Maltz & his targ, because I think it could show another example
of "linguistic relativity" in Klingon. (i.e., whether non-speakers
predominate over speakers, or vice versa. One of Lawrence's articles
discussed linguistic relativity, with examples along the lines of how <jub>
is "to be immortal," while <jubbe'> is "to be mortal," or literally "not
immortal.")

3) Variation on "Live Long & Prosper"
   Just an observation: The 2-hour long Star Trek 25th anniversary special on
t.v. (it was on more than 5 years ago, so you might not remember. I have it
on tape, but I think it may also be in the KLI archives) was hosted by
William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy.  Because ST:VI TUC was coming out then,
there were some segments on the special about the movie.
   At one point, Nimoy introduces a brief section of the show about Klingon
by saying that the Klingon way of saying "Live long & prosper"  is <yItaH 'ej
yIcheptaH.> A brief interview with Marc Okrand follows, where Marc talks
about how he had to invent the verb <taH.> The accuracy of Nimoy's grammar &
pronunciation when he says <yItaH 'ej yIcheptaH,> as well as the fact that
the creators of the program actually came in contact with Okrand, suggests to
me that Okrand created this phrase and is therefore valid tlhIngan Hol canon.
Of course, the LLAP translation that we've also been given, <yIn nI'
Daghajjaj 'ej bIchepjaj>, is also valid, although not as verb-oriented as
most Klingon translations.

4) Pronunciation of  & <egh>
   In TKD, we are told that I (uppercase i) is sometimes pronounced like the
"eee" in zucchini. Although we have no rules for when to do this, I have
noticed some words that are pronounced this way. They could be words that are
always pronounced this way, or perhaps the pronunciation depends on the
context:
   'Ij - From the description of the MSN pronounciation guide, it seems that
this is pronounced "eeedj" instead of "idj"
   cha'DIch - On ST:TNG, this has been pronounced "chah-deeech." I don't know
if Okrand coached the actors in these episodes, so isn't definitely canon
pronunciation.
   bIj - In the ST interactive VCR boardgame "A Klingon Challenge," Kavok
(the same actor who plays Gowron) pronounces this as "beeedj." However, based
on the rest of the tlhIngan Hol used in this game, Okrand probably didn't
coach him.
   DIr - In ST:KCD, I believe this is pronouced like "deer"
   bIr - In PK, this is pronounced like "beer."  Note that <rut bIr> ("it is
sometimes cold") sounds like "Root beer."
Another thing that I've noticed about pronunciation is that Okrand sometimes
says <*eygh> for the sound <egh.> I may just be hearing this wrong, so
someone should confirm or disprove this:
   Hegh - In the audio tapes, Okrand seems to pronounce this <*Heygh>
sometimes.
   pegh - In the secrecy proverbs, Okrand pronounces this like <*peygh>.
   jegh - At the end of the CK intro, Okrand says <bIjeghbe'chugh vaj
bIHegh,> but the <jegh> sounds like <*jeygh>.

5) <ghaj>
   It's interesting to note that <ghaj> means to have something figuratively
in addition to physically: <pIch vIghajbe'> appears in the TKD appendix.
Also, <Sov> can mean "to know a person." <naDev vay' DaSov'a'> appears in CK
as "Do you know anyone here?"
   Speaking of <ghaj>: Because the secrecy proverb <Hov ghajbe'bogh ram rur
pegh ghajbe'bogh jaj> doesn't use the noun suffix <'e'>, it can also be
translated as "A secret that a day doesn't have resembles a star that a night
doesn't have."

6) <ro'qegh'Iwchab HInob>
   The pronunciation of the phrase <ro'qegh'Iwchab HInob> must be different
in most dialects, because Okrand says in PK that saying this phrase
demonstrates that you know the current dialect. How it is different, however,
I don't know.


tlhonchaj chIljaj jaghpu'ra'
-taD

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