tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 16 17:11:15 2003
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Re: No word for "glorious"
Tyler wrote:
>Recently I've noticed that there seems to be no Klingon word for
>"glorious" or "glory". And yet this
>is a word we hear Klingons use in English quite a bit. You'd think that
>this would've been the first word
>Okrand created back when he first wrote the dictionary.
Well, we heard *Toh-pak-cha* in ST:Generations, subtitled "Glorious!" <G>
But seriously, we may already have the words we need, it's just that none
of them were glossed "glory" "or glorious" in the glossaries.
First, what exactly do you mean by "glory"? For example, in KGT (p.182)
Okrand translated the word thus:
pInaDqu' tuqlIj wInaDqu' je
Glory to you and your house.
("We praise you highly; we also praise your house highly")
In some cases, {Dun} "be wonderful, be great" suffices:
ta'mey Dun, bommey Dun.
Great deeds, great songs. TKW
How are great deeds different from glorious deeds -- especially in Klingon
terms?
In other cases, the noun {batlh} "honor" may well overlap with the English
idea of "glory". Certainly to a Klingon, honor and glory in battle are
inextricably linked. In fact, I've always believed that {batlh} is
something greater than mere {quv}, another noun meaning "honor", which I
view as closer to reputation or fame. (YMMV!)
Yet another approach is to use slang. For instance, cf. KGT (pp. 159-161)
on {qu'} "be great, wonderful, excellent, superlative, splendid":
When applied to people or animals, it is not always clear whether the
slang or nonslang meaning of {qu'} is intended. That is, {SuvwI' qu'}
("fierce warrior") could be interpreted literally, or it could mean
"excellent warrior." When applied to anything other than people or
animals, the slang meaning is more likely. Thus, {may' qu'} ("fierce
battle") is really a way of saying "excellent battle."
Or "glorious battle" perhaps?
In Klingon, only a participant in a battle, not the battle itself,
can literally be described as "fierce." The word {qu'} may also be
used as an exclamation ("Great!" "Wonderful!"). [....]
Or even "Glorious!"??
Nonslang verbs expressing similar ideas are {Dun} ("be wonderful,
great"), {pov} ("be excellent"), and, as an exclamation, {maj!}
("Good!").
Granted, it's not as cut and dried as some would like and Okrand's omission
is curious, but until Maltz gets more talkative, we just have to be inventive.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons