[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Hotlh

Steven Boozer sboozer at uchicago.edu
Thu Feb 4 09:37:40 PST 2021


Thanks for checking.  I’ve removed the offending phrase from my records.

BTW are you sure you didn’t hear {‘eH}?  Perhaps you thought it a grunt or a hesitation sound?  (I can’t check, as my computer doesn’t play sound.)  In my notes I have:

  'eH!
  Ready!  STMP  (response to a command, i.e. "Standing by")
[This was one of the eleven original Klingon words created by James Doohan and Jon Povill, spoken by Mark Lenard (through a set of prosthetic teeth) in the opening scene of STMP which Marc Okrand subsequently used as the basis for tlhIngan Hol.]

(TKD p.57):  {SuH}, {Su'} and {'eH} all mean that the speaker is about to give a command.  They are comparable to the "Ready!" at the beginning of a race: "Ready! Set! Go!"  {SuH} and {Su'}, but not {'eH}, can also be used to indicate that the speaker is ready to do something or that arrangements have been made for something to happen.  Some speakers of Klingon pronounce {SuH} as if it were {SSS}, almost like the English expression for "be quiet": shhh!

If {‘eH} wasn’t in STMP, I wonder where Okrand got it and why he felt the need to group it with {SuH} / {Su’} / {SSS} in TKD.  AFAIK it appears nowhere else.

--
Voragh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org> On Behalf Of SuStel

On 2/4/2021 10:48 AM, Steven Boozer wrote:
Hmm… it’s not in my notes for that scene. I wonder how that line got into my dictionary.
Is there a transcript online we can check?

Here's the scene: https://youtu.be/kbG3N51MEjM?t=62<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/youtu.be/kbG3N51MEjM?t=62__;!!BpyFHLRN4TMTrA!v9h0bYCB14fXcqco8DhoZrgbAo3RW5gI_Xj_nGmS1jqZm1TI9gka8kS4S4XO96zjUac$>

1:15 wIy cha'
TACTICAL...

1:35 HaSta
VISUAL...

1:42 cha yIghuS
TACTICAL, STAND BY ON TORPEDOES.

1:52 SSS
READY...

1:56 baH
FIRE!

2:23 juntaH
EVASIVE!

4:10 SSS
(untranslated)

4:19 something which might be baH or might be something else
(untranslated)


--
Voragh

From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org><mailto:tlhingan-hol-bounces at lists.kli.org> On Behalf Of SuStel
On 2/4/2021 10:27 AM, Steven Boozer wrote:
DoS cha'
Display target! STMP

I don't think there was ever a Display target! line in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The line was subtitled Visual! and interpreted by Okrand as HaSta.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol-kli.org/attachments/20210204/f0a9bd50/attachment-0015.htm>


More information about the tlhIngan-Hol mailing list