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

[Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>]

>>> Klingon Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 31, 2014
>>>
>>> Klingon word: pegh
>>> Part of speech: verb
>>> Definition: keep something secret
 
Voragh:
>> pegh De'vetlh
>> That is classified information. CK
>>
>> De' pegh vIghaj
>> I have secret information. PK

De'vID:
> {pegh} is used in these sentences apparently with the meaning "be secret"
> rather than "keep something secret".

I'm not sure that Okrand's glosses "be secret" and "keep something secret" aren't meant to be different ways of expressing the same idea:  i.e. something is secret = something is kept secret.  He might have said "keep something secret" for the imperative {yIpegh!} "keep it secret!" since "be secret!" isn't really proper English.  "To keep something secret" doesn't necessarily mean "cause to be secret, make it secret" - i.e. "classify" for which I would still say *{peghmoH} - but more like "maintain secrecy", "something which has been kept secret", etc.  E.g. 

  pegh vIttlhegh 
  A proverb keeps things secret. (HQ 5.1)

HQ 5.1:  Since {pegh} is also a verb (meaning "keep something secret"), {pegh vIttlhegh} can also be interpreted as a sentence meaning something like "a proverb keeps things secret," that is, it withholds information rather than being a ready source of answers.

That being said, we also have the verb {buv} "classify} and the noun {buv} "classification" which I've understood to mean sort, categorize, catalog, etc. rather than a security level -- although we do have {Hung buv} ["security classification"} from the BoP Poster:

  Hung buv rav: patlh Hut 
  classified level 9 and above KBoP

AFAIK that is the only example of {buv} - noun or verb - I know of, so I may be wrong.

> There are a few verbs like this where the meaning seems to change from
> "be X" to "cause something to be X" based on the subject and presence or
> absence of an object, without requiring {-moH}. The ones that come to
> mind are {mev}, {tagh}, {meQ}, {So'}, and {ghom}.

I know that {meQ} is problematic.  Examples of the others?  


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons



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