[tlhIngan Hol] 'elI'jaH

[De'vID]

On Wed, 11 Mar 2020 at 23:13, M Roney <nahqun at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is what I have in my notes:
> >>
> ‘e۰lI’۰jaH n. unexpected guest qep’a’ wa’maH wej DIch; 2006
>
> ‘el۰‘I’ ۰jaH n. uninvited guest qep’a’ wa’maH loS DIch; July 2007
> >>
>

It's weird that you misattribute the (correct) {'elI'jaH} spelling to 2006
and the (incorrect) *{'el'I'jaH} spelling to 2007, since apparently the
misspelling was the result of miscopying in 2006, which was corrected in
2007. See below.


> I made those notes in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
>

I did some digging and this is what seems to have happened. The word was
revealed to a small group in 2006 but not widely publicised. It was first
mentioned on the mailing list in this post from 2007 right after that
year's {qep'a'}, with the misspelling *{'el'I'jaH}, when 'ISqu' showed Qov
her notebook containing information from the *previous* year (i.e.,
2006). Note that Qov says {'oH*law'*} to indicate she wasn't sure about her
recollection:
http://www.kli.org/tlhIngan-Hol/2007/August/msg00021.html
<paqDaq latlh mu' ghaj Okrand 'e' vIlegh. 'el'I'jaH 'oHlaw'. 'ej "uninvited
guest" 'oS. mu'vetlh maqbejbe'mo' chaq mu'na' bIHbe'.>


> The word was passed along to the list in two different forms and with two
> different definitions.
>

It was immediately corrected by 'ISqu' at the conclusion of that thread:
http://www.kli.org/tlhIngan-Hol/2007/August/msg00171.html
<wa' ben, qep'a' wejmaHDIch nIQ Qav wISoptaHvIS paqHomwIjDaq
mu'<<'elI'jaH>> ghItlh Okrand. "unexpected visitor" 'oS mu'vam.
paqHomwIjDaq tlhIngan mu' bIngDaq DI'vI' Hol mu'mey "unexpected visitor"
ghItlh 'angghal... The word Okrand wrote in my notebook during last year's
qep'a' was spelled <<'elI'jaH>>. The English translation, written by
Lawrence below the Klingon word, was "unexpected visitor".>

Note that she wrote {wa' ben}, referring to 2006. So by "last year" she
did, indeed, mean the previous year's {qep'a'} in 2006, not the one which
had just concluded in 2007. Also, since Qov's source of information is
'ISqu''s notebook, and the notebook says "unexpected visitor" while Qov
passed it along as "uninvited guest" based on her memory, that's strong
evidence that the original definition was indeed "unexpected visitor" and
that "uninvited guest" and "unexpected guest" were errors of transmission.

Summary:
* The word was revealed in 2006.
* The correct spelling is {'elI'jaH}.
* The correct definition is "unexpected visitor".

-- 
De'vID
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