[tlhIngan Hol] finer shades of perfective aspect

[Steven Boozer]

Perhaps ligaments and tendons taste the same to Klingons.  We learned of {to’waQ} from the cooking – not the medical – section of KGT:

(KGT 191):  While tendon or ligament (to'waQ) that has been deep-fried is one of the few hot dishes enjoyed by most Klingons, burnt tendon is definitely a culinary gaffe.

… and it’s use in the common idiom {to'waQ yIv} "chew ligament" :

(KGT 119):  The origins of the phrase are unknown, but the imagery makes sense, since even with Klingon teeth, to chew (yIv) gummy ligament or tendon (to'waQ) takes longer than to chew most other types of food. The expression may be used as a command, as in {to'waQ yIyIv!} ("Chew ligament!"--that is, "Take your time thinking about it!") or as a statement, often with the verb suffix {-taH} (continuous), implying an ongoing activity, as in {to'waQ vIyIvtaH} ("I'm chewing ligament"--that is, "I'm in the process of taking my time considering the matter").

{‘aD} “vein, artery” was similarly vague until qepHom 2015:

(qepHom 2015, p.14):  vein is {'aD}.  In general usage, this means either a vein or an artery, so a better translation might be “blood vessel”.  In medical usage, however, doctors and so on make a distinction between {mej'aD} “artery” and {paw'aD} “vein”.  Maltz said that he thought that earlier these were {mejmeH 'aD} and {pawmeH 'aD}, but over time they were shortened.

--Voragh

From: David Holt

ghItlh mayqel qunen'oS:
> And being on the subject, I find it irritating (to put it mildly),
> that while we *do* have words for the "brother's sister's daughter's
> son in law, of the illegitimate brother of the second alien, who
> happened to orbit kronos on the day three dogs were in heat", but we
> can't differentiate between a tendon and a ligament, since we have the
> same word for both of them..
I find that most lay people don't know the difference anyway.  I'm satisfied calling them Hom to'waQ and Somraw to'waQ even though they both attach to a bone at at least one end.  Heck, I would even accept to'waQ for fascia, but I haven't settled definitively on a term - maybe qatbogh to'waQ?

Jeremy
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