tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 07 14:08:20 2013

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] International?

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



>>> Did the Klingon TalkNow! CD come up with the tlhIngan Hol for 
>>> "international?" Only I'd like to refer to the ISS in one of
>>> my blogs, and while {tengchaH} "space station" is known to me,
>>> "International" isn't.

nIqolay:
>> I'd probably use an N-N phrase like Hoch Sep tengchaH, "every 
>> nation's space station", or perhaps Sep law' tengchaH "many 
>> nations' space station", or even Sep jIj tengchaH "cooperative 
>> nations' space station".

Except it isn't.  The ISS is operated by and for a small group of space-faring nations - de facto if not de jure - so let's not forget {boq} and {DIvI'}:

HQ 4.4 (p.11):  {boq} "alliance" (also "bloc" or "coalition", though coalition is sometimes {boq ru'}, literally "temporary alliance"); {DIvI'} "federation" or "organization" (also "association, league, union") ... 

For that matter, why not just call it simply {tera' tengchaH}?  Until the Chinese launch theirs, it's the only one we have at the moment.


QeS:
> Ooo. That last one is quite nice. I didn't use {Sep} in mine only
> because I'm not sure whether a politically independent country
> would be seen as a {Sep}, or as a {wo'}. (The United States, for
> instance, is a single sovereign nation but is {'amerI'qa' SepjIjQa'}.)

In TalkNow! the "category title" for geographical names is {Sepmey tlhab} "Countries".  Okrand defines {Sep} in KGT:

KGT 16f.:  Within the land mass are distinct areas, some of which are demarcated geographically (divided by a mountain range, for example), while the boundaries of others seem rather arbitrary, the result, no doubt, of ancient power struggles. A specific area whose borders are definable, by whatever means, is normally called a {Sep}, commonly translated as "region", though, since the regions were politically distinct in the past, "country" might have at one time been just as appropriate a translation. 

As for {jIj} "be cooperative, cooperate" in GNs, we have:

  yuQjIjDIvI'			United Federation of Planets (TKD)
  yuQjIjQa' 			United Federation of Planets (TKD)
  'amerI'qa' SepjIjQa' 	United States of America (TNK)
  tuqjIjQa' 			United Kingdom (TNK)

When reminded that he had previously translated the UK as {wo' tay'}, Okrand wrote to qurgh:

  Finally, for UK--You're right. I had forgotten about {wo' tay'}.
  I think, though, for the CD, we should stick with {tuqjIjQa'}.
  If someone should ask why there are two names for the same
  country, I'd say that (1) it's not impossible for one country
  to be referred to (especially in a language/culture not of that
  country) by more than one name (Holland/Netherlands, for example),
  and (2) {wo' tay'} is an older name -- perhaps the Klingons who
  gave it that name were thinking of the British Empire.

Oddly enough, Okrand did not define {wo'} "empire" in KGT.  I've often wondered whether Klingons consider the Federation {DIvI'} to be a {wo'}.  From Monopoly we know that the Cardassian Union is called {qarDaSQa'} -- whatever *{Qa'} means, though the morpheme also shows up in {yuQjIjQa'}, {SepjIjQa'} and {tuqjIjQa'}.


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons




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