tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 25 15:20:28 1999
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RE: KLBC: an ancient battle
: jatlh Lorenzo:
: > la' qeng negh.
: > The scouts inform the commander.
:
: <negh> means "soldiers", as in the whole group as a unit. If you want
: to say "scouts", you could use <nejwI'pu'> - "searchers" or <bejwI'pu'>
: - "watchers", depending on the situation.
:
: pagh
: Beginners' Grammarian
Bill Willmerdinger talked about scouts and scoutships with Marc Okrand -
who didn't supply a word for either - at BabelCon II (April 1997):
When I met Okrand at BabelCon in April, we 'purchased' him at the
slave auction. His 'official' duty was to clarify one word: {toQDuj}
'bird of prey (type of ship)'. According to Marc, a {toQ} is an
avian predator on the Homeworld whose closest Terran analogue would
be a bird of prey. When I told him I had theorized that {toQ} might
mean scout (since that's what a BoP is) he said no, it's definitely
an animal from Qo'noS.
The names for specialized ships seem to be formed three ways in Klingon:
NOUN{Duj}
may'Duj battle cruiser
SuyDuj merchant ship
toDDuj rescue ship (cf. infra)
toQDuj Bird-of-Prey
veQDuj garbage scow
veSDuj warship
VERB{meH} {Duj}
ngongmeH Duj experimental ship, prototype (untranslated on S33)
QongmeH Duj sleeper ship (S15)
VERB{Duj}
HIvDuj attack fighter
lupDujHom shuttlecraft
qughDuj cruiser
toDDuj rescue ship (cf. infra)
This last group may eventually prove to be a contracted version of the
VERB{meH} {Duj} pattern. OTOH, these may also be derived from the
homophonous nouns for {HIv}, {lup} and {qugh} that were ommitted from the
glossaries or which have become obsolete in "modern" Klingon.
Note: I'm not sure which method produced {toDDuj} "rescue ship", as {toD}
"rescue" is both a verb and a noun. Likewise {tongDuj} "freighter": I
don't know what *[tong} means or what part of speech it is.
All that being said, there are now two good candidates for a "scout" in
Klingon: *{tlhargh} or *{tlharghwI'}. On the BoP poster we read {bI'rel
tlharghDuj} "B'rel Scout". At this time, we don't know what part of speech
*{tlhargh} is, so we can't sure of the final form, or even if it survives
in the "modern" language.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons