[tlhIngan Hol] “What color is it?”

[Will Martin]

For all the things Klingon does well, it basically sucks at describing colors. My wife and I have discovered that when she grew up, she had the 50 crayon set, while I had the classic (for boys) 8 color crayon set, and so her world is full of colors like mauve, teal, and chartreuse, while mine is full of colors like blue, green and orange. I have learned to recognize the colors she describes with words I didn’t know until I was middle aged, but it brings me back to the NPR Radio Lab episode about color, where they pointed out that there are no ancient writings that use any word that translates to “blue” because the word had not been invented yet because they didn’t have blue pigment yet for paints or dyes.

Basically, humans don’t develop color words for natural colors. As they invent artificial colors, they invent words to describe them. Before there was blue paint or dye, the sea was described as the color of dark wine and the sky was white. Helen of Troy’s eyes were grey.

Apparently, Klingon kids grow up with two crayons, a dark pencil and a white page. 

They have color words for the four colors they paint things: Green, Red, Whiteand Black. I’ve built a couple of Bird of Prey models. That pretty much covers the spectrum (except for white, which isn’t really used in that context). Everything else’s color is described as “resembling” something with a natural color for which Klingon has no word.

And since there are so few color words to choose from, why bother with a generic word for “color”? Just ask it like the joke: “Doq’a’?”

You don’t have to ask {SuD’a’}. If it’s not {Doq}, it must be {SuD}, right? And if it’s neither, then it isn’t really a color. It’s just dark or light or it looks like something in nature for which there is no color word.

This might be why the joke is considered funny to Klingons. Klingon armor, weapons, and blood are not red, so how could a warrior be red? It’s such a silly idea. Mwahahahahahahahahah...

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On Mar 10, 2019, at 10:58 PM, Daniel Dadap <daniel at dadap.net> wrote:
> 
> On Mar 10, 2019, at 21:32, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name <mailto:sustel at trimboli.name>> wrote:
> 
>>> My first instinct on how to ask that question was “chay' nguv?” However, after I asked it that way, I immediately thought to myself that maybe that is asking about the means by which the car is colored (e.g. laSvarghDaq lunguvmoHpu' nguvmoHmeH qoqmey”) rather than its current state of coloration.
>> It can't mean that; you'd have to ask chay' nguvmoHlu'pu' how has one tinted it? to get that.
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> Ah, cool. In English “how” can both ask a question of quality and a question of process (my own made up terminology; I’m sure there are better words I don’t know, or did know and have forgotten), and I wasn’t sure if {chay'} could also do both in Klingon. The examples for {chay'} in TKD 6.4 did not include any questions of quality.
> 
> It makes sense that {chay'} with a verb of quality would form a question of quality, but form a question of process when {-moH} is added. At least that’s what I think your example with {chay' nguv} vs. {chay' nguvmoHlu'pu'} generalizes out to.
> 
>> 
>>> So I reasked as “Doq'a'? SuD'a'? chIS'a'? qIj'a'?”
>> That's really awful.
>> 
> 
> Agreed.
> 
>> 
>> KGT tells us:
>> 
> 
> D’oh; once again I failed to open a perfectly good book I have sitting on my shelf before asking the list. Apologies for the noise.
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