tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 21 07:57:30 2009

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RE: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



naHQun:
>> Which brings up the question, if you were to speak like a Klingon
>> pirate, which speech patterns would you use?

Voragh:
>They would likely use Klingon smuggler's code.  We have one example from
>ST6:
>
>  ghewmey SuqQo'!
>  Don't catch any bugs! ST6
>
>which we are told in J.M. Dillard's novelization is smuggler's code for
>"Good luck in avoiding border officials!"  Interestingly, it is Morskan
>border guard Kesla who says this to Uhura, whom he apparently took for a
>smuggler, after listening to her bad Klingon which he understood as an
>"odd, archaic dialect."

ghunchu'wI':
>>> I would consider dropping all verb prefixes and using first- and
>>> second-person pronouns whenever possible.

Voragh:
>Coincidentally, Kesla dropped the imperative verb prefix {tI-}.

A follow-up to my earlier post...

I found evidence of Klingon pirates in one of the pro-novels in my notes:

  "{Ghuy'}," said one of the pirates, uttering what had to be yet
   another toxic curse. (_Excelsior: Forged in Fire_ [2007])

which reminds us that pirates (and other criminals) generally use lots of profanity.  Probably even more than the Klingon norm!
 
Which brings us to the inevitable question of a word for "pirate".  Someone once proposed *{weHwI'} for "raider, pirate, marauder" - e.g. *{verengan weHwI'pu'} "Ferengi marauders" - derived from {weH} "raid":

KGT 48:  {weH}, "raid" (same as {yot} ["invade"], really, but with the added connotation of surprise or speed); {HIv}, "attack, assault" ... and nouns ({yot}, "invasion, raid, incursion"... 

There's also {nIHwI'} "thief" (which is what a pirate is, after all) as well as the verbs {Hej} "rob", {qor} "scavenge", and {quch} "kidnap" - all activities associated with pirates.  Hmm... *{qorwI'} "scavenger" isn't bad.


-- 
Voragh                          
Canon Master of the Klingons






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