tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 26 11:27:11 2004

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: KLBC pawpu' DIS chu'

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Philip:
> > ramjep, chaHom nguv lubaH 'ej jorwI'Hommey jormoH.

qIn'orIq
>Just a thought: Is there, according to the word {ramjep} a word {jajjep},
>like >>high noon<<?

There is, actually:  {pemjep} "midday":

   DaHjaj pemjep
   this midday, today in the middle of the day
   (lit. "today midday" or "today's midday") [st.klingon]

We also have {DungluQ} "noon".

>Might a Klingon say that? I'm pretty sure {jajjep} never occures in canon,
>does it?  (Anybody heard of it AT ALL?)

You're unlikely to hear *{jajjep}.  Okrand explains the difference between 
the two words for "day" - {jaj} and {pem} - in KGT (p. 206f.):

   Thus, Federation Standard uses the single word "day" to refer to
   both a period of 24 Earth hours (generally reckoned from midnight
   to midnight) and to that part of the 24-hour period which is light
   (day as opposed to night). In Klingon, there are two distinct terms:
   {jaj} is the period from dawn to dawn; {pem} is that part of a {jaj}
   which is light (as opposed to {ram} ["night"]). Although Federation
   Standard also makes use of the locutions "daytime" and "nighttime",
   when a speaker of Federation Standard is counting periods of daytime,
   only day is used. Thus, three days, with no further context, is
   ambiguous, for it can refer to three 24-hour periods (as in "They
   wandered for three days") or three periods of daylight (as in "They
   wandered for three days and three nights"). In Klingon, {wej jajmey}
   means only three stretches from dawn to dawn; {wej pemmey} means
   "three periods of daylight" (as opposed to {wej rammey} ["three
   nights"]).

WRT {pem}, there is also {wa'maH cha' pemmey wa'maH cha' rammey je} "twelve 
days and twelve nights" which is an idiom meaning "a long time" ({poH nI'} 
in non-idiomatic speech).  If you're up on your Klingon lore, you'll 
recognize this phrase as coming from the legend of Kahless's famous fight 
with his brother Morath over (what else?) a matter of honor.  Cf. KGT p.121 
for more details.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

Back to archive top level