[tlhIngan Hol] My list of 19 new words revisited

[Jesse Manoogian]

André M?ller wrote:

>I remember last time, some people were a bit harsh that time. But it's good
>to see you back and I must say your list of words is really well thought
>through. Most of the words will probably be readily understandable for most
>Klingonists, except for perhaps "wifebeater". It's (I think) an English
>slang term that wouldn't be literally understandable by non-English
>speakers. Most will understand a person who beats their wife.

I was really stumped by how to translate "tank top". If I had had a copy of _Klingon for the Galactic Traveler_ I might have known about the yIvbeH. But maybe we don't need the level of specificity in Klingon that we have in every English domain. After all, in Klingon "crocodile" and "alligator" are the same word, and in Indonesian people normally use a word meaning "citrus" for all citrus fruit. Then we have the Algonquian languages (I'm thinking specifically of one Algonquian language beginning with M) in which one word is used for all upper-body garments: dress shirt, T-shirt, jacket, tank top, turtleneck, etc.

>Also note that it is somewhat of an unwritten custom to not write compound
>words as one word if it's not a word from Okrandian canon. So, better use a
>space, like {DIr vemmey}, (lit. 'marks of the skin'). But it's not a big
>mistake or anything.
I was not aware of this. OK, I'll use "DIr vemmey" and "rutlh 'echlet" and so on.
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