[tlhIngan Hol] qogh

[Steven Boozer]

{qogh} in canon:

(HQ 2.4):  Actually, there are two words for ear:  {qogh} refers to the flap of skin or cartilage or whatever it is that sticks out on either side of the head... {qogh} "ear", of course is homophonous with {qogh}, belt. When used in context, there is seldom confusion; less so when the plural is used ({qoghDu'} can only be ears while {qoghmey} generally means belts).  This homophony explains why the Klingon slang expression {qogh tuQmoHHa'}, literally "take off one's belt" is used to mean to not hear, for example, {qogh vItuQmoHHa'pu'} "I've taken off my belt; your secret is safe with me."

(KGT 88):  {qogh} (ear - the external part, if there is one; the actual organ of hearing, the {teS}, is usually considered too small to bother with)  [i.e. serving as food] 

(HQ 12.4:9):  Ears (at least healthy ones) produce no by-products other than earwax ({Serrum}), which is said to somehow just {vI'} "accumulate" in the ear.

In view of the idiom {qogh tuQmoHHa'} I'd imagine {qogh} is the more general of the two words and is heard (!) far more often -- unless you're an audiologist!  A more Klingon distinction might be that {qogh} is what you can cut off with a *d'k tagh*, say when you catch someone eavesdropping at an open door: {lojmIt poSDaq Daq pagh}.

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

FLAVIUS:  What do you call those?       [pointing with his rifle at Spock's head]  
SPOCK: 	    I call them "ears".                                       (TOS "Bread and Circuses")

SOVAL:     What *is* their fixation with our ears?
T’POL: 	    I believe they’re envious.                          (ENT “Cease Fire”)

SPOCK:	    Somehow they do not look esthetically  pleasing on a human.
                 (to Kirk who is disguised as a Romulan, TOS "The Enterprise Incident")


-----Original Message----------Original Message----------Original Message-----
From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org> On Behalf Of Daniel Dadap

> On Jul 13, 2019, at 10:16, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> Could someone use {qogh} to describe the whole ear, i.e. outer ear *and* inner ear too ?

This makes me wonder whether the middle ear is considered part of the {qogh}, the {teS}, or something else. When I think of {teS} I think of the cochlea, the eardrum, and the tiny little bones whose names I forget, and when I think of {qogh} I think of the part that a barber needs to trim around on the sides of the head, but the ear canal doesn’t seem to really be part of either of those things.