tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 08 11:46:16 2002

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Re: "Floreat Majestas"



qe'San wrote:
>I'm looking to translate my family motto into tlhIngan Hol.
>The Latin is "Floreat Majestas" and the English "Let Majesty Flourish"
>
>The help I'm after at this stage is some pointers towards words or phrases 
>not a full translation as I'd want to do some of it.
>
>For Flourish I thought about "prosper" - chep
>but then wondered about <taHpu'> as being more appropriate.

Why the perfective suffix {-pu'}?  Is the act of continuing 
completed?  I.e. is majesty to flourish no longer?  The simpler formula 
{[reH] taHjaj} "May X continue [forever]! (Long live X!)" has been used by 
Okrand for sayings and slogans:

   taHjaj boq
   ["May the alliance continue" (untranslated in TKD p.173)]

   reH tlhIngan wo' taHjaj!
   May the Klingon Empire continue forever! PK
   (i.e. "Long live the Klingon Empire!" which we heard in TNG)

   reH tlhInganpu' taHjaj!
   Klingons forever! PK

And there's Krankor's well-known Klingon anthem *{taHjaj wo'} "Long Live 
the Empire!" which is sung at the KLI's qep'a'mey.

>Majesty on the other hand has somewhat stumped me as to an applicable word 
>or phrase.
>Maybe <nur>:
>     nur'a' taHpu'jaj      ????
>or
>     nurna' taHpu'jaj      ????

According to Webster's Dictionary, "majesty" means:

   1 : sovereign power, authority, or dignity

{woQ}    "authority, political power"
{woQ'a'} "ultimate power"

{ngup} "authority, power; one in authority, one in charge (slang) KGT

{nur} "dignity"

   2 -- used in addressing or referring to reigning sovereigns and their
        consorts <Your Majesty>, <Her Majesty's Government>

Klingons use the honorific suffix {-neS} or the common title {joHwI'} "My 
Lord, My Lady" for this when addressing their betters.

   3 a: royal bearing or aspect : GRANDEUR
     b: greatness or splendor of quality or character

We have {Dun} "be wonderful, be great" or the slang term {qu'} "be great, 
be wonderful, be excellent, be superlative, be splendid" - the non-slang 
meaning is "be fierce" - which you could turn into an abstract ghach'ed 
noun:  *{DuntaHghach}, *{qu'taHghach}, etc.

Another approach is to re-define the word in Klingon terms, which will 
sometimes lead you to the right words in tlhIngan Hol.  What would 
"majesty" mean to a Klingon warrior if s/he had to explain it?

And, of course, there's our old friend {batlh} "honor" when all else fails.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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