[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: 'e'levan

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Tue Feb 6 08:53:40 PST 2018


Klingon word: 'e'levan
Part of speech: noun
Definition: elephant
Source: qep'a' 24 [2017]
_______________________________________________

"I recently had to translate the text for a children's show where the main characters are a mouse and an elephant." (Lieven, 3/21/2017)

"I think {Qa'Hom} is okay for mouse. And Maltz wasn't aware of any native Klingon elephant-like animal. So go with a Klingon version of Federation Standard. How about {'e'levan}?"  (Lieven < MO, 3/2017)

"This refers to the Terran animal, not some similar Klingon animal - if there is such a thing - and the word is obviously just taken from Federation Standard, so it's not so much a Klingon word as it is a Klingonization of a Federation Standard word." (qep'a' 2017 New Words booklet)

(HolQeD 4.2 p.5-6):  ... that old Groucho Marx joke, you know:  "I just shot an elephant in my pajamas... and how he got in my pajamas I'll never know."  You can say that in Klingon, no problem; they'll get the joke. There's not many jokes you can get to translate into Klingon, but that one would work.

SEE ALSO:
nIvnav  		pajamas (n)
bach  		shoot (v)


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons





More information about the tlhIngan-Hol mailing list