tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 10 11:57:03 2004

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toasts & toasting

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

[Reposted with a new Subject]

> >   reH HIvje'lIjDaq 'Iwghargh Datu'jaj!
> >   May you always find a bloodworm in your glass! PK

QeS lagh:
>Is this a toast, or an insult?

It's a toast.

>(I just realised that I don't think we have a Klingon term for "toast".

I've seen *{HIq mu'tlhegh} used on the List once or twice.

>Perhaps {quvmoHmeH SoQ}

   "address for the purpose of honoring"

Consider *{SoQHom}.  Toasts are much briefer and less important than a full 
{SoQ} "speech, lecture, address".  Also, a toast doesn't give you {quv} 
"(personal) honor" - your actions do that! - but rather {naD} 
"commendation" or praise/approval: *{naDmeH SoQHom}.  Another option might 
be {van} "salute" - particularly if there's a typical toasting action or 
gesture involved, like raising or tipping your {HIvje'} to the person 
you're toasting: *{vanmeH SoQHom}.

None of these necessarily imply drinking, BTW, and could also mean an 
encomium or any other type of speech in honor of something.

>or {tlhutlhlu'taHvIS jatlhlu'bogh quvmoHmeH SoQ},

   "address for the purpose of honoring which is spoken while drinking"

Too wordy.  This works better as a definition than a translation.

>but they're not as good as I'd like.)

I suggest a different approach:  *{HIvje' mu'[mey]} modeled on {HIvje' bom} 
"drinking song":

   ... the most frequently heard type of song is the {HIvje' bom}, the
   drinking song. The word {HIvje'} really refers to a drinking glass
   of any kind (a goblet, tumbler, wineglass, mug), so a {HIvje' bom}
   is literally a "drinking glass song", perhaps so named because the
   glass is alternately filled and emptied (that is, the beverage is
   consumed) as singing continues.  (KGT 78)

This use of {mu'} appears in {bom mu'}/{bom mu'mey} "lyric, lyrics" and 
{tlhach mu'mey} "argot, jargon").

One might say:

   matlh vInaDmeH HIvje' mu'mey vIjatlh vIneH.
   I wish to make a toast in honor of Maltz.

   matlhvaD HIvje' mu' wIjatlh... Ha'!
   Let's toast Maltz!  Let's give a toast to Maltz!

on the model of {SoQ Dajatlh} "you deliver an address, you make a speech":

   qama'pu'vaD SoQ Dajatlh
   you make a speech to the prisoners (st.k 6/97)



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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