[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: ghItlhwI'

[Steven Boozer]

> Klingon Word of the Day for Thursday, July 27, 2017
> 
> Klingon word: ghItlhwI'
> Part of speech: noun
> Definition: stylus, writing implement, person who writes
> Source: KGT:p79

(KGT 79-80):  ... {ghItlhwI'} (stylus). The word {ghItlhwI'} (literally, "engraver") is also used for any writing implement as well as for any person who writes. 

 (KGT 80):  Indeed, the verb {ghItlh} is most commonly translated as "write", but it always refers to the act of writing - that is, of making marks on some surface - not to the act of composition. Its use in the contexts of both sculpting and writing suggests that writing began as carving.

(HQ 2.4):  To mark (upon) something is {ghItlh}. This isn't just writing; it's any kind of marking. (Note that {ghItlh}, to write, refers to the physical act of writing. It doesn't mean to create a composition." For that, Klingons use {qon} "record." 
 
(st.k, 7/09/1998):  The verb for write in the sense of compose is {qon}, literally "record". This is used for songs and also for literary works (poems, plays, romance novels, and so on). As has been pointed out, it's as if the song or story is somehow out there and the "writer" comes into contact with it, extracts it (to use Qov's nice phrase), and records it. The verb usually translated "write," {ghItlh}, refers to the physical activity of writing (moving the pencil around, chiseling, etc.)
   The question is, if you can {ghItlh} it, must you also {qon} it? That is, is everything that is written down the result of composition (in the sense described above)? The answer is "not necessarily." There's another verb, {gher}, which doesn't have a straightforward equivalent in English, but which has sometimes been translated (not entirely satisfactorily) as "formulate" or "compile" or "pull together." The idea seems to be that of bringing thoughts together into some kind of reasonably coherent form so that they can be conveyed to someone else. 


SEE ALSO:
ghojmeH ghItlhwI' 	pencil (n) (TNK)
rItlh naQ 			pigment stick (n)

ghItlh  			manuscript (n)
De' chu' ghItlh 		newspaper (n) TNK


ghItlh vIghItlhta'bogh DalaD'a' 
Will you read my manuscript?  (TKD)


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