tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 29 13:44:39 2010
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RE: Klingon dates again
Voragh:
>> Kohlar asked the pregnant B'Elanna, "Did you conceive during the holy
>month of Nay'Poq?" (VOY "Prophecy")
Felix:
>I suppose naypoQ is the month when a woman must be married... or perhaps
>it's nay'poq that's the month when a lot of food tends to go bad ;)
{nay} "marry (bride does this)" (v.) + {poH} "period of time" (n.)
If this is in fact the etymology, it could refer to Kahless' marriage to Lukara - assuming they married, that is! - as so many other "holy" Klingon rituals do. WRT Lukara:
KGT 80: Kahless himself is said to have used his bat'leth, the original "Sword of Honor," to carve a statue for the woman he loved, presumably Lukara.
KGT 13: Following the successful defense of the Great Hall at Qam-Chee, Kahless and Lukara engage in a brief conversation that marks the start of their epic romance. Students have been memorizing these lines and repeating them for so long, they have become part of the knowledge shared by all Klingons. One need only say the first line - "{mova' 'aqI' ruStaq}," a {no' Hol} way to say "today was a good day to die" - and everyone will know what is to follow. Interestingly, in the case of this particular conversation, the lines have been incorporated into a mating ritual that persists to this day, with the man and the woman taking the roles and repeating the {no' Hol} lines of Kahless and Lukara, respectively, as the prelude to a romantic encounter."
This phrase was used in DS9 "Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" as part of a holographic portrayal of the Defense of Qam-Chee, "one of the most romantic events in Klingon history".
OTOH...
Why the month of Nay'Poq is holy was not actually explained but may have had something to do with the *Kuvah'Magh*, a Klingon messiah/savior figure. Later in the episode we saw an intriguing ceremony: Kohlar leads B'Elanna, who is carrying the unborn Kuvah'Magh, in a plea for the honored dead who are called by name ("Remember A son of B. Remember X daughter of Y. [etc.]").
>Maktag would definitely seem to be a standard Klingon month, as Alexander
>used it to label his date of birth in an official setting (registering
>for daycare, unless I'm mistaken).
That's right. Worf was embarrassed that he didn't know his son's birthday. Fortunately, Alexander was old enough to tell him.
>By the way, is it known if a Klingon minute is sixty Klingon seconds, and
>a Klingon hour sixty Klingon minutes? That would make sense if they got
>the concept of minutes and hours from the Federation, but not so much if
>they developed it on their own.
The only "official" linguistic comment about seconds, minutes or hours we have is:
CK: The word for hour in Klingon is {rep}. Six hundred hours or six o'clock in the morning is six {jav} plus hundred {-vatlh} plus {rep}; altogether it's {javvatlh rep}.
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons