tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 27 16:10:34 2001
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: poH
"Will Martin":
> The noun {poH} has not been explained to us very well yet. I'm more
: tempted
> to refer to the time the attack begins as {HIvmeH poH} in this instance
: and
> say, {nuq 'oH HIvmeH poH'e'?} Maybe {rep} is a better noun.
SuStel:
: /poH/ as a noun seems pretty clear to me. "Period of time." Perhaps a more
: explicit phrase would be "span of time." It's not an instant, it's a
: duration. [snip]
: /HIvmeH poH/ would seem to be the period of time during which an attack
: occurs, whether or not the attack takes place over the entire period.
Something like a window of opportunity?
: we don't have is a straightforward way to speak of the "moment" that an
: attack begins. We might talk of the /HIvchoHmeH tup/ or something like it,
: depending on the time scale we're considering. You might even try
: /HIvchoHmeH poH/, where the /poH/ in question is much smaller than any other
: /poHmey/ you might be talking about.
Or use Will's suggested alternative, {rep} "hour": {HIvmeH rep} - like the
WWII-era "H-hour" (cf. "D-day"). {rep} can also refer to the time of day:
rep yIper!
Ascertain the hour! Specify the hour!
(i.e. "What time is it?") [st.klingon 2/99]
which would presumably elicit an exact answer - e.g. "It's 14.32 hours" - as
"hour" does in many Terran languages (Russian: *Kotoryi teper' chas?* ["Which
hour is it now?"], Hebrew: *Mah ha-sha'ah?* ["What is the hour?}, etc.). Of
course, if you're a Vulcan you would substitute {tup} "minute" or even {lup}
"second" -- but that seems a bit over-precise to me. Still, as Worf reminds us
on CK: "Klingons are never approximate."
BTW, hours, minutes and seconds are themselves periods of time, not precise
moments either. Opting for one of these only substitutes a smaller, definite
{poH} for an undefined {poH}.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
tlhIngan-Hol Mailing List FAQ:
http://www.bigfoot.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm
Online Glossary of Linguistic Terms:
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/glossary/