tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Aug 21 05:12:38 1999

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RE: Testing something...



Thanks a bunch. I'm sure there are lots of these phrases I haven't been
exposed to yet. I think I will start a sheet of them, in case I encounter it
again.

Angela

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Boozer [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 1999 2:05 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Testing something...


Gintaka:
: nuqneH! Sa' Gintaka naDev! devwI' [of] [the] tuq [of] Gintaka! ghIj qet
: jaghmeyjaj!


Angela:
: I got of, the... of course I am an utter newbie :-)
: What is jaghmeyjaj supposed to be?

{ghIj qet jaghmeyjaj} [sic!] "May your enemies run with fear!" This is the
traditional acceptance when one is asked to serve as another's second
{cha'DIch} in ritual challenges (TNG "Sins of the Father").  Mark Okrand
comments on this line, written by the Paramount script writers (who just
look up words and affixes in the Dictionary), in _The Klingon Way_ (p. 65):

   As with common sayings in other languages, some Klingon proverbs,
   particularly those which have taken on ritualistic overtones,
   exhibit unusual grammatical forms ... the commonly heard version
   of this Klingon expression, as uttered by Kurn and cited above,
   is grammatically aberrant. If the expression were rendered in
   everyday Klingon, it would be {jaghmeylI' DaghIjjaj, qetjaj
   jaghmeylI'} ("'May you scare your enemies, may your enemies run").

You might reasonably expect {jaghpu'}, using the plural suffix for people,
but Okrand is giving the writers the benefit of the doubt by applying the
poetic "scattered all about" sense of {-mey}.

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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