[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: ruDelya' rop'a'

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Mon Apr 10 06:16:10 PDT 2017


kechpaja  wrote:
> >> pIvHa'                be unhealthy (v)
> >> pIv                   be healthy (v)
> >
> > Do we know whether these two verbs apply only to beings, or whether
> > they can be used for i.e. a healthy lifestyle or healthy food?
> >
> > There's a part of me that wants to translate "the food is healthy" as
> > {pIvmoH Soj}, since it's the people doing the eating who are going to
> > be in good healthy, not the food itself ({qagh} notwithstanding).

De'vID: 
> English unfortunately conflates the two different meanings of "being in a
> state of good health" and "being conducive to a state of good health" into
> one word. Some pedants insist on reserving "healthy" for the former and
> using "healthful" for the latter, but that battle seems to have been lost
> long ago:
> http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/healthy-or-healthful
> 
> My instincts tell me that {pIv} means only "healthy" in the sense of
> "being in a state of good heatlh" and not the other meaning, though I
> can't prove it. (Marc Okrand did once write {yIpIv!} in a get-well letter,
> so there's that.) For the "healthful" meaning, I'm inclined to use
> {pIvmoH} as you are, or {rach}.

AFAIK we have only three examples used by Okrand, all referring to people: 

bIpIvHa'law' 
You look terrible (You seem unhealthy). TKD

tlhIngan yoH pIv verengan yoH rop 
The Klingon is braver than the Ferengi (slang) KGT

yIpIv 
Be healthy! (Okrand to Proechel, 3/1998)

[Okrand sent Glen Proechel a "get well" letter when he was hospitalized for heart and kidney failure. "I don't know that this makes that phrase the 'official' way to wish someone health in Klingon, but it is consistent with the idea that sickness is considered a weakness and a Klingon needs to be ordered to stay healthy." (Glen Proechel, 3/1998)]


--
Voragh
tlhIngan ghantoH pIn'a'
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons






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