tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 09 17:57:40 2003
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Re: Klingon WOTD: nuq (ques)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Wednesday, April 9, 2003.
>
>Klingon word: nuq
>Part of Speech: question word
>Definition: what?
As used in canon:
qaStaH nuq jay'
What the #$*@ is happening? TKD
Duj ghoStaH nuq
What is coming toward the ship? TKD
nuq legh yaS
What does the officer see? TKD
nughoStaH nuq
What is coming toward us? TKD
nuq Dalegh
What do you see? TKD
Dochvam nuq
What is this?
nuq mI'lIj, tera'ngan
What is your number, Terran? CK
Daqvam nuq
What is this place? CK
nuq tu'lu'
What is there? CK
pa'Daq qaStaH nuq
What's happening over there? CK
Sojvetlh 'oH nuq'e'
What is that food? PK
Dujvetlh 'oH nuq?
What ship is that? ST6
DaH nuq ta'pu' Day joH
What has Lady Di done now? RT
nuq DaneH
What do you want? KGT
As discussed by Okrand:
Question words (in this case, {nuq} "what?") function the same way
pronouns do in questions with "to be" in the English translations.
Thus, the question {yIH nuq?} "What is a tribble?" is exactly parallel
to the statement {yIH 'oH} "It is a tribble" ... The answer to the
question {yIH nuq?} ("What is a tribble?") would presumably be a
definition or description of a tribble. This being the case, then,
the answer to the question {jarlIj qaq nuq?" ("What is your preferable
month?") would presumably be a definition of "your favorite month".
(st.klingon)
Of the three suggested ways to ask "Where do you live?" the first is
the most acceptable: {nuq DaDab} "What do you inhabit? What do you dwell
at?" ... The English translations of {nuq DaDab} are very awkward (from
an English point of view) and don't get across the sense of the Klingon
all that well. The less literal "Where do you live?" is what is really
being asked. In Klingon, when one lives in a place or dwells in a place,
he or she is thought of as "occupying" or "inhabiting" that place; not
doing something at that location, but doing something to it (occupying
it). (st.klingon 7/99)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons