tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 09 12:19:37 2015

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] naming things

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



Lieven asks:
> - Ships are made of shiptype+Name
> - Ranks follow the name: tlha'a HoD
>
> My question was, how would we handle other situations?
> 
> Grandpa John =?
>    ??Hegh vavnI' jan.
>
> my dog Droopy =?
>    ??targhwIj DIrupIy Dlegh'a'?

I think these are all be cases of simple apposition, with the order of elements dependent on which is more important or is the element you're emphasizing.  

I found some examples of relationships used with names:

  qeylIS loDnI' 'opleS chovan 
  One day, brother Kahless, you will bow before me.  PB

  qanjIt qan vemmoH moratlh, vavDaj ghaH qanjIt'e' puj
   tIqDu'Daj 'ach Hem 
  Morath wakes his father, the old Kanjit, his hearts
   weak, but proud. PB

  DuraS tuq tlhIngan yejquv patlh luDub 'e' reH lunIDtaH 
   DuraS be'nI'pu' lurSa' be'etor je. 
  The sisters of the House of Duras, Lursa and B'Etor, are
   constantly seeking a higher standing for the House of
   Duras within the Klingon High Council. S26

and of course there's the standard "X son/daughter of Y" naming formula: 

  paq torghen puqloD 
  Pok, son of Torghn. STK (etc.)

  HuS 'atrom puqbe'
  Huss, daughter of A'trom (KGT)

KGT 197:  It is always proper to call somebody by his or her name alone... During formal occasions, it is also not uncommon to refer to someone by his or her father's name, such as {mogh puqloD} (son of Mogh) or a combination of given name plus father's name, such as {HuS 'atrom puqbe'} (Huss, daughter of A'trom).

> the book Hamlet =?
>    ??DaH paq Hamlet vIlaD.

This one is trickier.  "The book Hamlet" or "Hamlet, the book" (as opposed to the play/movie/etc.) is apposition.  But "The Book of Hamlet" OTOH could well be a title - e.g. the biblical Book of Matthew or the Eleventh Tome of Klavek (VOY "Barge of the Dead") - of which we have an example in (semi)canon:

   tlhIngan ghobmey paq 
   Klingon Book of Virtues [original title of TKW]

Mark Okrand also wrote a bit about book names in his introduction to the oddly named {paq'batlh}:

   We know that the name of the book itself, {paq'batlh}, is some
   form of {no' Hol}. It is grammatically backwards from what we
   find in modern Klingon (where it would be {batlh paq}, or "honor
   book"). The character we are rendering with an apostrophe in 
   {paq'batlh} may be a clue to some missing grammatical element in
   {no' Hol} that may explain the transposition of the words.

I'll try to find some more examples.

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons




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