tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 20 06:47:40 2012
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Chinese puns in Klingon?
>> Klingon Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 19, 2012
>>
>> Klingon word: ngat
>> Part of speech: noun
>> Definition: gunpowder
Lieven:
> I found a possible (and obvious) pun:
> According to German wikipedia, gunpowder was developed during the
> chinese Tang-dynasty. The english wikipedia only mentions the
> "gunpowder-tea" created during that dynasty.
>
> Anyhow, it fits the pun.
It does indeed. Nice catch! Okrand has a few Chinese puns (or at least inspirations):
jungwoq China
wo' empire
"MO did, however, deliberately choose the Cantonese pronunciation for China rather than Mandarin. His reason was that if he had used Mandarin, the name would have ended in {wo'}, and he didn't think Klingons would like to call an Earth country by their word for empire." (De'vID, 11/14/2011)
{chan} area eastward, area towards the east
China? Chan Dynasty?
ghangwI' horizon
*gan* is Old Chinese for "horizon" [source?]
lung *long* (type of lizardlike animal)
"Perhaps a pun on the Chinese word for dragon? In Mandarin, the word is romanized as *lung* (Wade-Giles) or *long* (pinyin), and takes the second tone. In Cantonese, it's usually romanized as *lung* (fourth tone), although it's also the *loon* in Kowloon." (Stephen Carter)
"I asked MO about {lung} at the {qepHom} (I am a native Cantonese speaker), and he said that the similarity is deliberate." (De'vID jonpIn, 11/18/2011)
Can anyone contribute any others?
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
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