tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 13 14:11:48 2007

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Re: Klingon WOTD: ghangwI' (noun)

McArdle ([email protected]) 

Steven Boozer <[email protected]> wrote:
>lay'tel SIvten:
>>> >Is this related to {ghang}?
>>> >
>>> >NWL20030704; HQ v12n2p8; v; end prematurely (an event, voyage, battle, play,
>>> >opera, story, song, etc.) [The subject of this verb is the person causing an
>>> >event to prematurely end. The direct object is the event that is ended.]
>>>
>>>Voragh:
>>>I don't think so. {ghangwI'} (HQ 11.2) was revealed prior to {ghang} (HQ
>>>12.2). It's generally accepted that {ghang} derives from the 1970's US
>>>television series "The Gong Show", many of whose dreadful amateur acts were
>>>ended prematurely when one of the celebrity judges struck a huge gong. I
>>>can't think of any relationship between the two, even as a pun.
>>
>>mIq'ey:
>>This is probably far-fetched, but could M.O. have been playing with the 
>>astronomical meaning of the word "terminator" (= "the boundary between the 
>>part of a moon or planet that is illuminated and the part that is dark" - 
>>Encarta)? Not that "terminator" and "horizon"are remotely synonymous, but 
>>when the sun is on the horizon and you ride off into the sunset, you are 
>>in fact heading toward the terminator.
>
>And the transition is immediate? Note the meaning of {ghang} "end PREMATURELY"
   
  I didn't say anything about a "transition", merely about a possible pun relating the English word "terminator" and the horizon.  You said you couldn't think of "any relationship, even as a pun", and this is one that occurred to me.  I don't claim anything more for it than that it's a "far-fetched excogitation."
   
  Nevertheless, I do think that there's a sense of prematurity to the English verb "terminate".  Think of the phrase "terminated with extreme prejudice", or Schwarzenegger as "The Terminator".  A death by such agency is almost by definition "premature".  Since what's in play here is a pun and not an analogy, I don't think it's very important that this sense isn't necessarily carried over when "terminator" is used astronomically (although the terminator on an airless body such as the Moon actually is abrupt).
   
  >>
>>The fact that {ghangwI'} was revealed before {ghang} doesn't necessarily 
>>mean it existed first.
>
>I meant that the usual way {-wI'} nouns arise - either historically or in 
>"real life" (i.e. from Okrand) - is that the verb "X" exists first, then a 
>need arises for a nomen agentis ("one who does X, thing which does X").
>
   
  I was responding to your statement that you doubted a connection between {ghangwI'} and {ghang} (meaning "to end prematurely") because the former was revealed before the latter.  We don't know in what order they were actually invented.
   
  >There are exceptions: e.g. {chamwI'} "technician" - no known verb ?{cham} 
>but a noun {cham} "technology}; {De'wI'} "computer" - no known verb ?{De'}, 
>but a noun {De'} "information, data", etc. Which is not to say that there 
>are no verbs ?{cham} or ?{De'}, just that they aren't listed in the limited 
>vocabulary available to us or they haven't survived into the 23rd/24th century.
>
>Of course, Okrand could have had a verb ?{ghang} having something to do 
>with horizons 
   
  ... or with termination ...
   
  >in his notes for quite some time. I imagine he thought up 
>new words and puns all the time and probably wrote some of them down for 
>future reference.
>
>
>
>--
>Voragh
>Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
   
  qavan
   
  mIq'ey
   
 
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