[tlhIngan Hol] New words from "Miniatur Wunderland"

Lieven L. Litaer levinius at gmx.de
Mon Apr 1 08:46:32 PDT 2019


Hi there,

intended as an April fools joke which is not a joke (so somehow a
Schrödinger's joke?), the world's largest model railway in Germany has
published their promotional video in Klingon.

See the video on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ovl2G2jsYM

and on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=338690640114293

For future reference, details and new words are listed in the Klingon
Language wiki: http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/MiniaturWunderland

These are the words:

{ghI'neS} n. "Guinness", Klingon spelling for the company name
{Hamburgh} n. "Hamburg" (city)"
{men} vt. "have an area of..."
{mu'neqo} n. "Monaco"
{nu'} va. "be particularly small"
{SIqenDInavya'} n. "Scandinavia"
{tIHmey} n. "railroad tracks"  [based on tIH "shaft of speer"]
{tlharwIl Duj} n. "railroad car" [part of a train]
{'ewro} n. "Euro" [European currency]

The most interesting word certainly is {nu'}. To show the difference: a
{targhHom} is just a small targ, but a {targh nu'} can only refer to a
"toy targ".

Okrand's words:
------
There's no noun Maltz is aware of like "miniature" (small model or
version of something).  {machqu'} is fine, but if you want to avoid it,
you could use the verb {nu'} which means something like "be particularly
small" and is often used of things that are smaller than the usual or
expected size. In general, things that are {nu'} are smaller than those
that are {mach} or even {machqu'} — but there's no hard line or specific
rule. If/when it's appropriate, you could also make use of {-Hom}.
------

After I asked for atoms, this was the answer:
-------
You might use it for atoms (if the context is appropriate). It wouldn't
mean "smaller than expected" in that case — only "tiny" or something
like that.
------

So roughly, {nu'} is even smaller than small. "mini".

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




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