tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 28 19:59:32 1999

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Re: HaSta



On Sat, 27 Mar 1999 15:43:28 -0800 (PST) David Trimboli 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Hee hee!  I just watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Tuesday, and it
> seemed quite clear to me that the Klingon commander ordered {wIy cha'} and
> then {HaS cha}.
> 
> Somehow, Okrand decided he heard {HaSta}, and thus the word was born.  But
> my guess is that James Doohan was imagining the syllable {cha'} or {cha} to
> be present in both orders.

At the time, Okrand was gathering phonemes for the language. He 
only got about half of what he felt he needed, so he made up the 
other half, using the script directions for the movie, "The 
captain answered in his gutteral Klingon..." I suspect he 
recognized that every other syllable was {cha} and he tried to 
interpret them in new and interesting ways to add some variety 
to it. I didn't hear any glottal stops on any of the {cha}s, 
either.
 
> SuStel
> Stardate 99236.1
> 
> jatlh charghwI':
> We are not even sure it ever meant anything as a stand-alone
> word. Just because compound nouns are possible doesn't mean that
> every polysyllabic noun with a recognizeable syllable was
> constructed by that means. What words combined to make {HaSta}?
> Likely none. But {ta} is a noun. So do we go searching for the
> meaning of {*HaS*}?

charghwI' 'utlh




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