tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 05 07:17:59 2007

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Re: Klingon WOTD: mum (verb)

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Wednesday, July 4, 2007.
>
>Category: Food
>
>Klingon word:   mum
>Part of Speech: verb
>Definition:     taste, sense flavors
>
>Additional Notes:
>KGT p. 86.  The verb {mum} ("taste") means "sense flavors."  To say {Soj 
>vImum} ("I taste the food") is to say "I perceive a flavor or flavors," 
>not "I try out the food to see if it is prepared properly."  This latter 
>meaning of "taste" is expressed by the verb {waH}, which can also be used 
>more generally to mean "try out, test, use experimentally."


   Another verb, {mum}, means "taste" in the sense of "perceive flavor(s)".
      qagh vImum
      I taste the gagh ("I perceive the gagh's flavor")
   (msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand 7/01/97)

   The usual Federation Standard translations of the primary tastes (pungent,
   sour, salty) are a little deceptive. From the Klingon point of view, it is
   not accurate to say that a particular food is sour; rather, it tastes and
   smells sour. That is, sourness is not an intrinsic quality of the food; it
   is a perception, the effect the food has upon the senses of smell and taste,
   the Klingon sense of smell being particularly highly developed. Translations
   such as "sour-inducing" ({Soj wIb}, "sour-inducing food"; {na' Soj}, "The
   food induces saltiness") would perhaps be closer to the feeling of the
   Klingon, but they are a bit clumsy." (KGT 85-86)




--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons






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