[tlhIngan Hol] yIntagh

[Steven Boozer]

{yIntagh} appeared in the KCD novelization (page reference lacking):

   "What kind of a *yInTagh* bar is this?"

And was explained in KCD itself:

   "This is one of a number of Klingon curses that doesn't have an adequate translation."

Was KCD produced before or after TNG "Redemption, Part I"?

Later DeCandido -- who often consulted Okrand -- used it in his novel "Klingon Empire: A Burning House" (page reference lacking):

  "... a tornado came, one that was far stronger than our {yIntagh} of a governor said it would be." 

--
Voragh

----------------------------------------Original Message---------------------------------------------
From: SuStel
On 9/9/2017 1:24 AM, Anthony Appleyard wrote:

About the two meanings of {yIntagh} (swear word epithet and "life support system").

Thinking entirely within the real world, some may say that it is merely an oversight by Marc Okrand which we are now stuck with.

What is the first use of "yIntagh"? Was in a bit of Klingon text which was recorded, and then the scriptwriters changed the English, so that the Klingon had to be retrofitted to another English translation? (This is how {-pu'}, originally intended as only as a verb perfective suffix, came also to mean "plural of being who can talk".) ({yIn tagh} as two words means "life lung")

Within the Star Trek scenario, it could be from two words which were formerly pronounced distinctively but came to be pronounced the same (such as "feet" and "feat"), or from two words from different traditions (such as "damn" from Latin and "dam" which was native English).


From Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Redemption, Part 1"

	LURSA
	Members of the High Council, it
	is a day of great rejoicing for
	the family of Duras and the
	Klingon Empire. We have
	discovered that our brother did
	indeed have a son and heir.

	GOWRON
	This is an outrage! Duras had
	no mate. Where did you find him,
	Lursa? In a harlot's bed
	chamber?

	TORAL
	I will personally cut your tongue
	out, Yintagh!

	GOWRON
	Impudent wretch.

I see two possibilities. Either the writers just made something up from scratch, which just happened to be identical to the word for life-support system, or they opened The Klingon Dictionary, couldn't find the word they were looking for, and picked one at random or one which they thought sounded good. I see no reason to believe the writers ever had any actual knowledge of tlhIngan Hol.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name