tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 09 23:50:39 2004
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mu' 'ay' <jon>: qunHeyDaj
- From: "QeS lagh" <[email protected]>
- Subject: mu' 'ay' <jon>: qunHeyDaj
- Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 17:49:57 +1000
- Bcc:
ghItlhpu' SIvten:
>jon + wI' : engineer [-wI' = one who is/does]
wot ngo' 'oHbej <jon>'e' 'e' vIHar.
I think it's an old Klingon verb, with matching noun, which meant "to
drive". However, it appears to have referred to "driving" in the sense of
"causing to move", not in the sense of piloting. Hence, *{Duj jon mIqta'}
"the machinery drives the ship", not *{Duj jon cheng Sa'} "General Chang
drives the ship", unless General Chang himself happens to be the {jonpIn}.
The sense of "engineer" that's meant, in my mind, is the job filled by
Scotty on the Enterprise: the officer in charge of running the ship's
systems, and in particular, the propulsion system (the basis of the word).
The same sense was originally meant in English when we referred to the
"engineer", or driver, of a steam train. This meaning, and the presence of a
matching noun, is borne out by the word {jonta'} "engine", viz. "the part of
a ship that makes it move". (The second part also appears in the word
{mIqta'} "machinery", although what it means is anyone's guess. "Machine"?
"Device"?)
Hence, I think that *at some stage*, this word was an ordinary verb + {wI'}
construct (and {jonta'} and {jonpIn} ordinary compound nouns), but the verb
and noun {jon} fell out of use, maybe when non-land-based and space travel
basically suppleted ground travel.
Similarly, {De'} may have meant "to calculate" or "to process data",
producing a noun {De'wI'} "computer", but there's not as much evidence for
this, and even less for {chamwI'} "technician". I'm not even sure what a
verb {cham} might have meant, since I can't think of how {chamwI'} and
{cham} "technology" may connect, unless {cham} means something like "to work
with technology".
(Of course, this all basically has no bearing on modern Klingon. But Klingon
etymology has always interested me, being rather more complicated than I'd
first thought.)
nuq boHar?
Savan.
QeS lagh
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