tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 19 08:35:06 1998
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: cha'puj (was RE: Sor Hap - Some musings)
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: cha'puj (was RE: Sor Hap - Some musings)
- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 10:34:23 -0600 (CST)
pagh:
: You missed one - {Dom} - radan (crude dilithium crystal) (n). I believe
: this is the unprocessed (or perhaps only crudely processed) {cha'puj}
: you were wondering about.
Voragh:
: Thanks. But since we're speculating on imaginary geology & technology in
: an imaginary language, let's be sure we get the details right. {Dom} is
: glossed as "radan (crude dilithium)" - not crystals, at least not yet.
: FWIW, {cha'pujqut} "dilithium crystal" was defined on MSN as "Elemental
: crystal used in the reaction of matter and antimatter to generate power." So
: what is the relation between these three? Is {Dom} the raw output of the
: mine ("dilithium bearing rock" as it were), i.e. what we saw the prisoners
: on Rura Penthe gathering? After some processing is {cha'puj} "dilithium"
: extracted from the {Dom}?
pagh:
: From what source do you get this? My TKD lists {Dom} as "radan (crude
: dilithium crystal) (n)" on both the English and Klingon sides.
DopDaq qul yIchenmoH QobDI' ghu'! I stand corrected. {Dom} is indeed
glossed as "radan (crude dilithium crystal)" in TKD. For some reason, the
word "crystal" is missing from my personal AKD, a copy of which I'm using at
the moment. Most annoying!
: Wow! Never underestimate the thoroughness of the Ca'non master!
As you've just proved, though, a Ca'Non Master is only as good as his notes.
This teaches me to double check everything against the books (which are at
home) and not rely solely on my faulty memory.
Voragh:
: Is {cha'pujqut} "dilithium crystal" a variant form of {cha'puj} or is it
: the result of further refinement? In a TOS episode ("Elaan of Elaas" ?),
: the Elaasian princess had a necklace of raw dilithium crystals, which Scotty
: was able to make use of in his "wee bairns" to save the ship from a Klingon
: attack after all the Enterprise's own Starfleet-issue crystals had been
: "burned out". Elaan said the crystals were common on her world, which
: explained the Klingon interest in that star system. I wonder if the further
: refinement is a careful cutting of the raw crystals to precise shapes and
: angles, along with an inspection for any crystalline faults, or
: "microfractures" as they would probably say in Trek. I remember Scot was
: worried about the irregular shapes of the raw crystals and was hesitant
: to send power through them.
Since I didn't recognise the word, last night I looked up *radans* in The
Star Trek Encyclopedia (1st ed.), which further corrects some minor errors
of recollection:
gemstones from Troyius. Chemically radans were raw dilithium crystals,
making Troyius a planet of great strategic significance. The leader of
Troyius gave Elaan, the Dohlman of Elas [i.e. a neighboring planet in the
Tellun Star System], a necklace of radans as a wedding present in 2368.
Her necklace served as a source of emergency crystals for the Enterprise
when that ship was under attack by a Klingon vessel that ironically sought
to guarantee a supply of radans from Troyius. ("Elaan of Troyius", TOS)
It seems that {Dom} is a count noun capable of taking {-mey} in the plural,
referring to individual raw crystals, and not a mass noun (like "coal" and
"ore" in English) as I had always assumed from the bare gloss in TKD. This
also explains why the following are listed in the 1st ed. of TKD along with
{Dom}:
telun Hovtay Tellun Star System
Doy'yuS Troyius
'elaS Elas
ghIgh necklace
Voragh