[tlhIngan Hol] Anyone wan to help design a Klingon ruler?

[Alan Anderson]

On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 6:20 PM, Ed Bailey <bellerophon.modeler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just as feet are divided into both tenths of feet (for surveying) and inches
> (for carpentry, machining, etc.), perhaps Klingons use both decimal {'ujmey}
> and {'ujHommey} according to purpose. Based on how augmentatives multiply
> units of measurement by nine, it's reasonable to expect that diminutives
> divide then by nine, in which an {'ujHom} would be one ninth of an {'uj} or
> 3.87cm. Another thing to ask Maltz. I'd hate to make a ruler marked with
> {'ujHommey} only to find out from Maltz an {'ujHom} is actually a
> twenty-seventh of an {'uj}.

Reasonable expectations apparently do not apply to Klingon units of measure.

Here's what Marc Okrand said about such things:

>From: Marc Okrand <...>
>Newsgroups: startrek.klingon
>Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999
>Subject: Re: Measurement question
>
>Will Martin wrote:
>> So, if an 'uj'a' is nine 'ujmey, is an 'ujHom a ninth of an 'uj?
>
>No.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
>
>An 'uj is a unit of linear measurement, roughly 35 centimeters; an
>'uj'a', or "big uj" ('uj plus the augmentative suffix -'a' "big") is
>nine times as long, or nine ujes, somewhat over three meters.
>
>The Klingon measurement system is more like the British and American
>system in that the names of the units, for the most part, have nothing to
>do with each other (inch, foot, yard, mile, and so on).  This differs from
>the metric system, where the names are basic units modified by a set of
>prefixes (meter, millimeter, centimeter, kilometer, etc.).
>
>Thus the existence of a unit known as a "big uj" ('uj'a')  does not mean
>there's a mathematically related diminutive counterpart (a "little uj," or
>'ujHom)
>
>Maltz did say, however, that he'd heard the term 'ujHom used in a story
>about a merchant lacking honor, something about the merchant not filling
>the order properly.

-- ghunchu'wI'