tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 28 20:41:24 2000
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RE: chan
lay'tel SIvten:
> chay' mu' [chan] yajlu'? jajlo' lurgh 'oH'a'?
HIja', Qo'noSDaq jajlo' lurgh 'oH chan'e'.
> How is east defined? I think of it as the direction the
> sun comes up in in the morning. If the sun is stationary
> in the sky, then I don't know, but such is not the case
> with Qo'noS, anyway.
pagh:
: If you're asking what "East" means on Kronos, then it's the
: direction of rotation, just like on Earth.
Here's a bit more from Okrand's long post to startrek.klingon (11/21/99) on
directions which should answer lay'tel's question:
There are three nouns for these principal points. The
translations of these words using terminology familiar to
the Federation are a little awkward, but they give an idea
of the meanings:
chan "area eastward" or "area towards the east"
'ev "area northwestward" or "area towards the
northwest"
tIng "area southwestward" or "area towards the
southwest"
[...snip...]
English words like "east" and "southwest" are, as noted,
just convenient tags for what the Klingon words mean.
Since <chan> actually refers to that part of the landscape
in the direction of the sunrise, "east" is a reasonable
English counterpart. The standard translations of <'ev>
and <tIng> follow from the standard translation of <chan>.
But Klingon <chan> does not work the same as English
"east." From the Klingon point of view, it makes no sense
to say that something is "in the east." One can go towards
the east, something can be to the east of something else,
but nothing can actually be "in" the east. No matter how
far eastward you go, there's something still to your east.
Thus the awkward translations "area eastward, area towards
the east" and so forth. (And, of course, the same can be
said for the other directions.)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons