Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: mevyap

[Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>]

> Klingon Word of the Day for Thursday, April 23, 2015
> 
> Klingon word: mevyap
> Part of speech: excl
> Definition: stop, enough already

KGT 113:  This expression, usually considered a single word, is used as a command meaning "Stop! Cease!" It comes from two Klingon verbs, {mev} (stop, cease) and {yap} (be enough, be sufficient). No doubt in the past, the locution was longer, perhaps {yImev, yap!} ("Stop! It is enough!") Actually, {yImev!} ("Stop!") is the imperative form if the command is given to an individual; to tell a group to stop, one would say {pemev!} The dropping of the imperative prefix ({yI-} or {pe-}) is what would be expected in Clipped Klingon, the abbreviated form of the language frequently used in giving military orders or when under duress; {yap} (be enough) is used as if an exclamation or a single-word sentence meaning "It is enough". The two words have been used in juxtaposition ({mev, yap}) for so long, they have come to be accepted as a single, though grammatically peculiar, word. If the order of the components were reversed (*{yapmev}), the utterance would be meaningless.


Possible examples - in Klingon and Standard - from the various series:

"{mevyap}! "That is enough!" (TNG "Sins of the Father")

"*Mev'Yap*, Thopok!" (DS9 "Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places")

"Enough!" (TNG Reunion, The Chase) 

"Stop!" (TNG Reunion)

"Shut up!" (DS9 "House of Quark")

[I like this brusque "shut up!" as a possible translation for {mevyap} in contrast to the relatively more polite (for Klingons) {bIjatlh 'e' yImev" "Stop speaking!"]


Contrast {mevyap} with examples of {mev} and {yap} alone:

not mev peghmey 
Secrets never cease. PK

mev! 
Do not do that! PK

SSS... mev! ba'! 
Do not do that! Sit! PK

mevQo'!
Don't stop! SAREK

bIjatlh 'e' yImev 
Shut up! (Stop speaking!) PK

bIleS 'e' yImev 
Stop relaxing! Stop resting! PK

bIyev 'e' yImev 
Stop breaking! Stop pausing! PK

bIDum 'e' yImev 
Stop napping! PK

Sop 'e' mev 
Stop eating! PK

bIjatlh 'e' yImev.  yItlhutlh.
Stop talking! Drink! TKW

mamevQo'. maSuvtaH. ma'ov.
Battling on through the Eternal fight. (Anthem)

mev 
[someone] stops. KGT

yImev, yap! 
Stop! It is enough! KGT

jImev 
I stop. KLS

jatlh 'e' mevDI' qeylIS, lop 
After Kahless's words, they celebrate PB

jatlh 'e' mevDI' nuvpu' mejmoH ghaH ratlh be'nalDaj luqara' neH. 
After his last words, all were sent away, but his wife Lukara. PB

Suvlu'taHvIS yapbe' HoS neH 
Brute strength is not the most important asset in a fight. TKW

not yap wa' Hol 
One language is never enough.
 (2009? promo for "A Klingon Christmas Carol")
 [Anyone know if Okrand vetted this one?]

'Iw HIq yap tu'lu'be' 
Sufficient bloodwine does not exist (qep'a' 2014 Secrecy Proverb)


SEE ALSO:
pItlh  	Done! All finished!
rIntaH  	It is accomplished! It is done!


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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