tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 28 09:09:37 2005
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Re: Klingon WOTD: nav HablI' (noun)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Thursday, July 28, 2005.
>
>Klingon word: nav HablI'
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition: facsimile, fax
N.B.: the fax machine (data transceiving device {HablI'}), not the paper
{nav} it generates.
Here's the story from HolQeD:
"After we (Dragon Systems) recorded the 'native speakers' to make the
acoustic models to build the speech recognition for the Language Lab on the
Klingon CD-ROM, I got the idea of sending each speaker a formal thank-you
letter. I translated our company letterhead into Klingon and, using the
KLIpIqaD font, scissors, tape, and a color copier, made a bunch of Dragon
Systems stationery with Klingon in {pIqaD} at the top and transliterated
Klingon and English in small type at the bottom. But since this was
associated with an official Klingon product, I wanted to be sure my Klingon
was correct. I had been working with Marc Okrand by phone and email during
the project, and so I sent him the text of my transliterated Klingon
letterhead, asking especially about my word for 'fax', which at the time
was a compound word with no space. He wrote back, approximately, that he
liked the idea, but he would prefer to express it as a two-word phrase,
{nav HablI'}; and he also suggested the corresponding {ghogh HablI'} for
'telephone'. [...] Since my office is in a different building from the
company reception desk I prefer to give people the number of the fax
machine closest to my desk. I put both numbers on the letterhead, labeling
them in English 'Klingon fax' and 'general fax'. Dr. Okrand suggested
{le'be'} for 'general', and so of course that's what I used." (Mark Mandel,
IMO HQ 5.2:20)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons