[tlhIngan Hol] new words: the mycelial network

[Lieven]

peqIm,

someone recently pointed at me that it's weird that the "mycelial 
network" is called {'atlhqam SIr'o'}, while the 'atlhqam seems to be a 
special kind of mushroom native to Kronos (as described in KGT). Here is 
a long and nice explanation (or even "ret qon" from Okrand):

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For the archive: this is printed in qepHom 2017, page 16.
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MO: For the "mycelial network", Maltz suggests you use the word 
{SIr'o'}. It can mean "web" or "mesh" and perhaps also "lattice" or 
"nexus." He said that's the word you'd use to describe the complex road 
map you and I talked about.

LLL: The mycelial network described in Star Trek: Discovery is referred 
to as {'atlhqam SIr'o'} in the subtitles. But according to the book 
"Klingon for the Galactic Traveler", the {'atlhqam} is a type of fungus 
native to Kronos, "usually scraped off the bottom of certain animals’ feet".

MO: Technically, {'atlhqam} refers to a specific type of fungus, not 
fungi in general.

But apparently it's a really common type of fungus (at least one 
commonly used in food) because it's the word the Klingons used when they 
encountered Earth mushrooms. As you know, the Klingon way to say 
"mushroom" (referring to a particular kind of fungus they found on 
Earth, not a Klingon thing) is {tera' yav 'atlhqam}. This suggests that 
although the typical {'atlhqam} is found on the feet of some sort of 
Klingon animal or on Klingon trees, there's another kind of {'atlhqam} 
that grows in or on the ground (this would be a {yav 'atlhqam}). And the 
{yav 'atlhqam} must have some similarities to the mushroom found on 
Earth (but not be exactly alike) so that they call the Earth thing by 
the name of the Klingon thing closest to it and we get {tera' yav 'atlhqam}.

Apparently {tera' yav 'atlhqam} refers to any kind of Earth mushroom, 
and there are zillions. For all I know there are a zillion kinds of 
Klingon {yav 'atlhqammey} also. Anyway, if there are at least several 
different kinds of Klingon {yav 'atlhqam}, that word – well, noun 
compound – may well refer to different kinds of Klingon fungi.

Furthermore, since whatever grows on the animals' feet probably doesn't 
look at all like an Earth mushroom (though, of course, I could be wrong 
about this), I suspect the foot-bottom 'atlhqam also doesn't look much 
like the Klingon {yav 'atlhqam} either. But they must have something in 
common; otherwise Klingons wouldn't consider the {yav 'atlhqam} to be a 
kind of {'atlhqam}. So {'atlhqam} (without the {yav}) seems to refer to 
lots of different kinds of Klingon fungi.

The point of all this is that there are a number of different Klingon 
things and Earth things are all called {'atlhqam}. So even though, 
technically, {'atlhqam} is not a general term corresponding to English 
"fungus" or "mycelium" or anything like that, it seems to cover a lot of 
different fungus-like things. So, in non-scientific, everyday speech, it 
seems to function as a general term for "fungus."

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This information from #qepHom2017 will be added to the page "Message 
from Maltz" on qepHom.de:
https://www.qephom.de/e/message_from_maltz.html

-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.klingonisch.net
http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/qepHom2017