tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 13 07:07:29 2013
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: 'o
> Klingon Word of the Day for Monday, May 13, 2013
>
> Klingon word: 'o
> Part of speech: excl
> Definition: Oh!
> Source: Email from ghunchu'wI' to the KLI's email discussion group on 22
> August 2011
Appears in the opera {'u'}.
"{'o} appears before a name used as direct address. As we saw it used, it acted a little like a vocative prefix: {'o qeylIS, qeylIS, qeylIS...} It seems to be an honorific exclamation, or maybe it's just used for direct address in general and doesn't actually have the implication of deference or reverence that I inferred. If it hadn't been consistently present when the opera "speaks to" Kahless, and consistently absent when it "speaks to" Molor, I might have ignored it as an unimportant background sound." [ghunchu'wI', 8/21/2011]
"Marc was present while we discussed the vocative case in that context and he didn't seem to object at all to that characterization. I know he has a talent for making you think he's confirmed whatever you think, but I think it's just a name-invoking particle without particular commendation. The funniest part, to me, was the next day when we were singing Kumbaya and watching Qanqor suddenly realize that we have being saying <<'o qeylIS>> all along. Marc was also dismissive about {'o}, like it wasn't really a new word, was just {'o}." [Qov, 8/21/2011]
'o qeylIS, qeylIS...
O Kahless, Kahless... ('u'-OPERA)
'o 'oghlu'meH qul (?)
"O for a Muse of fire [that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention]" (KCD, prologue to Henry V)
{'o} replaces *{cha} and *{va} which have been used in the past. Another method is to use a mild expletive, as was done in _The Klingon Hamlet_:
baQa', Qovpatlh, toy'wI"a' qal je jIH
"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" (TKH)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
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