tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 26 08:03:09 2005
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Re: Klingon WOTD: ngagh (verb)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Monday, July 25, 2005.
>
>Klingon word: ngagh
>Part of Speech: verb
>Definition: mate with
>
>Additional Notes:
>Originally in PK, reported in HolQeD 3:2 p. 10.
As used in canon:
targhlIj yIngagh! yIruch!
Go mate with your targ! PK (punctuation uncertain)
Seems to me that the phrase that best fills in the blank ("I
cannot be insulted by (a) ...") is the one suggested a while
back by both SuStel and Qermaq: {yIH ngaghwI'} (I'd leave the
"a" in the English: "I cannot be insulted by a {yIH ngaghwI'}.")
If this is translated as "one who mates with a tribble," perhaps
it sounds too formal or clinical (in English, not in Klingon)
to function as a curse or insult. If it's translated "tribble
mater-wither" or something like that, it has a somewhat better
tone, but it's questionable English and therefore lacks punch.
But English isn't the issue here; Klingon is, and, unless I'm
missing the point, {yIH ngaghwI'} should work. I trust that,
in the story, the Federation officer who utters the phrase is
prepared for what the Klingon may do next. [st.expertforum 7/98]
Klingon males initiate courtship by biting the female. (VGR "Someone to
Watch Over Me")
When Klingon women are ready to mate, they slink around like a "Hellenian
lynx" while making low growling sounds like a {chemvaH} in heat. (PK)
In the KLI's Klingon Hamlet (TKH), the line "Get thee to a nunnery" was
translated (by Holtej?) as {ngaghQo'wI' nawlogh yImuv}. Guido's endnotes
translate it as "squadron of the celibate" and further expound: "the
closest Klingon equivalent of a monastic order, these were bands of
warriors - of either gender - who dedicated their lives to fighting, to the
point of refusing to mate."
>Synonyms: nga'chuq
"sex (i.e. perform sex, always subject)" [HolQeD 1.3]
See also the transitive verb {Sep} "breed":
Klingons generally {Sep} (breed) small animals such as
{gharghmey} (worms). [KGT 89]
also the qualities {yatlh} "be pregnant" and {bogh} "be born".
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons