tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 17 09:54:54 1999
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RE: KLBC: Sayings of the Sea
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Steven Boozer wrote:
[previous text snipped]
> A "tall ship" - a tall, masted sailing ship like the one used for Worf's
> promotion scene on the holodeck in "Star Trek: Generations" - is not the
> same as a {Duj'a'} "big ship" or a "supership (e.g. a supertanker).
> Avoiding the overused augmentative is difficult as we don't know the
> Klingon quality that translates as "be tall", or even whether the same word
> would be used with things and people. OTOH, we do know how Klingons
> measure height. On startrek.klingon (10/97) Okrand revealed {'ab}
> "measure, have a length of" used for measuring "(potentially) longish,
> skinnyish things (for example, spears) and also for heights" He gave two
> relevant examples:
>
> jav 'ujmey 'ab SuvwI'
> the warrior has a length of six ujs
> the warrior stands six ujs
> the warrior is six ujs tall
>
> vagh 'ujmey vI'ab
> I have a length of five ujs
> I'm five ujs tall.
>
> The {'uj} is a unit of linear measure, about 35 cm. Some related vocabulary:
>
> tIn "be big, be large"
>
> jen "be high"
>
> jen loD; Sor rur.
> The man is as tall as a tree. KGT
> [Is this phrase actually in KGT? I couldn't find it last I looked.]
>
> *runHa' "be tall (in stature)", literally "unshort" from {run} "be
> short (in stature)"
One more set of words for the Weights & Measures category.
> Of these, I think {Duj jen} works best here. Looking up from the deck, the
> tall masts of a sailing ship seem to soar high up into the sky, which is
> where the stars you steer her by are. To make this more Klingon, you might
> even call them the "naked stars". <g>
jIQochbe'. maj Duj jen. But I'm puzzled. How would calling them "naked
stars" make the phrase sound "more Klingon"?
quljIb
(who wants to be the Poet Lauriate
of the Klingan Empire when he grows up!)
> --
> Voragh
> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
>
>