tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 01 21:49:07 1999
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Re: Hello
- From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Hello
- Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 00:27:02 -0500
- In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.05.9901311213030.497-100000@linux.schoolblows.dyn.ml.org>
ja' Scorpion <[email protected]>:
>I just got on this list a few minutes ago. I ordered the Klingon
>Dictionary and Conversational Klingon about 10 minutes ago (amazon).
Welcome! You've become part of what is probably the single best
resource in the known universe for people who want to learn the
Klingon language (besides The Klingon Dictionary, of course).
>Could someone tell me how to write "Scorpion"? I'm just going to read
>stuff here (no more posts) until I start learning it. I just want to know
>that word for now.
There's no Klingon word for "scorpion" -- scorpions aren't native
to Qo'noS, so the language doesn't have a name for them. (What's
the English word for "burrito"?) A Klingon who needs to consider
scorpions will either describe them or "borrow" the English name.
Unfortunately, "scorpion" happens to be a very difficult word for
a hypothetical native Klingon speaker to pronounce. The sequence
of sounds just doesn't fit Klingon phonology at all. In order to
approximate how I think it would sound with a Klingon accent, I'd
have to add a bunch of extra vowels and spell it {SIqorpIyIn}. A
mangling like that probably isn't worth it.
If you want to use it as a name, how about coining something like
{tartlhuQ} "poisontail"?
-- ghunchu'wI'