[tlhIngan Hol] windlass

[De'vID]

On Fri, 7 Feb 2020 at 15:57, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:

> I think my question more about English than Klingon.
>
> Regarding the word {tlhegh jIrmoHwI'} which is translated as "windlass",
> what other kinds of {X jIrmoHwI'} would make sense, and how would you
> translate {jIrmoHwI'} without doing it literally?
>
> In other words, is there a "windlass" not used with a rope?
>

Sure, a (spinning) reel on a fishing rod. It's basically the same type of
thing as a windlass, i.e., a device which causes a line (in this case, a
fishing line) to be wrapped around something due to rotation. I'm not sure
whether a fishing line would be considered a {tlhegh} or a {SIrgh}, though.
Maybe, to a Klingon, a fishing rod is a windlass for catching fish.

A bobbin on a sewing machine, however, definitely works with a thread, so
it's a {SIrgh jIrmoHwI'}. A wire spooling machine might be a {baS SIrgh
jIrmoHwI'}, though maybe it'll be a {baS tlhegh jIrmoHwI'} if we're talking
about industrial-sized machines.

Maybe a thing that you wind your garden (water) hose around is a {qatlhDa'
vaD jIrmoHwI'} (or whatever the Klingon word for "(water) hose" is).

A device that rewinds a cassette might be a {qoSta' jIrmoHwI'}. (Perhaps
that's an alternative to calling it a {ghojmeH ghItlhwI'}!)

I imagine that, instead of a rope, you could have a chain on a {jIrmoHwI'}
to make a {mIr jIrmoHwI'}.

Many things that can be wound around an axis by spinning are long,
flexible, and thin (relative to the spool). But if you can wind a ribbon,
can you wind a roll of paper (e.g., toilet paper or paper towel)? That is,
does {nav jIrmoHwI'} make sense? Or would these be a kind of {Qumran}
(!!!)? Also, I wonder if length is necessary. For example, might the platen
on a typewriter or a roller on some kinds of printers be considered a {nav
jIrmoHwI'}, even if the {nav} does not (or is not supposed to) end up
wrapped around the device?

If I had to abstract {jIrmoHwI'} in all of these devices and come up with a
translation, I'd probably call it a "reel/spool winder".

-- 
De'vID
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