tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 09 12:20:34 1999

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KLBC Re: 'oy'DI' QuchwIj, jIQuch!

On 09-Jun-99, Steven Boozer wrote:
>qa'ral:
>>Any ideas as to the Klingon for *forehead butting*? /qIp/ (hit with hand,
>>fist, implement) would seem inapplicable.
> 
>Jeremy Silver:
>: CK mentions butting heads, but I havent quite worked out exactly what was
>: being said from the tape, the best I could come up with was the following
>: dialogue segment (TT - terran tourist, KG - Klingon Guide):
>: TTWhat's happening over there? pa'Daq qaStaHnuq.
>: KGKlingon warriors are butting heads.qIp'egh nachDu'chaj
>:     tlhInganSuvwI'pu'.
>: Was I close?  Where is the canon master when you need him. ;)

>You rang?  Here's the scene from my notes:

HIja',  'In vImupta'

>  KG Klingon warriors are butting heads.
>     qIp'egh nachDu'chaj tlhIngan SuvwI'pu'.

>The reason Jeremy had trouble with this line was that the grammar was...
>unusual.  Former BG SuStel commented on this list that:

>  "This sentence really doesn't make much sense to me. I think it's
>   supposed to be {qIp'egh tlhIngan SuvwI'pu' nachDu'}. However,
>   perhaps Okrand has some weird sort of grammar in mind..."

>Rather than second guess Okrand, I prefer to view this as an idiom and
>leave it at that.  

What really threw me was the use of the suffix  - 'egh :
qIp'egh nachDu'chaj tlhIngan SuvwI'pu'.

the Klingon Warriors heads hit themselves          ?

Personally I couldnt understand why they weren't hitting each other:
qIp'chuq nachDu'chaj tlhIngan SuvwI'pu'

but who am I to challenge an accepted idiom, and run the risk of insulting the
honour of every Klingon who said it that way, since it was first uttered that
way. A phrase ending in "they are still finding bits of him" springs to mind.

>Of course, the Terran's Klingon minder, or {nov DorwI'} "alien escort", might
>have been a little drunk when this conversation occurred which may explain
the
>grammar. <g>)

Maybe that explains it. Its probably why toasts have a grammer all of their
own too  ;)

-- 
   Jeremy Silver   |\   [email protected]
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