[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: bIS'ub

[Will Martin]

I’m making no claims about lip movement similarities between the English meaning and {pIrmuS} and {bIS'ub}. I’m saying the lip movements of the two Klingon words are similar to each other, while the sound is remarkably different. Same vowels in the same position in each of two syllables, {p} and {b} are visually indistinguishable and the other differences are not visually obvious.

Two words with tightly related meaning that have very similar lip movements, but very different sounds.

It just struck me as interesting. I’m not suggesting anything profound here.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.

> On Oct 21, 2020, at 7:39 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 19 Oct 2020 at 16:50, Will Martin <willmartin2 at mac.com <mailto:willmartin2 at mac.com>> wrote:
> It strikes me that {bIS’ub} and {pIrmuS} are words that, like “animal” and {Ha’DIbaH} would be nearly impossible to distinguish between the pair of words by lipreading.
> 
> I don't understand. Are you claiming that {pIrmuS} and {bIS'ub} have the same lip movements as "bottom"?
>  
> Given that Okrand’s early work with the Star Trek, even before working on the Klingon language involved coming up with Vulcan words that would lip sync to video shot in English, I wonder…
> 
> {pIrmuS} took form as a pun based on Pirimus and Thisby, the play-within-a-play in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream because the inner character Pirimus was played by the outer play’s character named Bottom.
> 
> But what does {bIS'ub} come from?
> 
> Given that Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair who talk to each other through a wall, I am strongly inclined to believe that {bIS'ub} is some kind of transformation on "Thisbe". (The "isb" is basically there in both words. One just has to explain why the initial "th" became a {b}.)
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
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