[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tIng

[De'vID]

Thanks everyone for the responses. Now it makes sense to me (again).

(I'm sure it made sense to me before because it passed unnoticed, but for
some reason it looked odd when I saw these words recently.)

On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 at 18:46, Alan Anderson <qunchuy at alcaco.net> wrote:

> On Mar 1, 2021, at 11:48 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 23 Dec 2020 at 18:30, Steven Boozer <sboozer at uchicago.edu> wrote:
>
>> 'amerI'qa' ‘ev chan ‘ev                 North America (GN) (qepHom 2016)
>> 'amerI'qa' tIng chan tIng       South America (GN) (qepHom 2016)
>>
>
> I don't recall if anyone has pointed this out before, but does anyone else
> find these backwards? Why isn't it {'ev chan 'ev 'amerI'qa'} and {tIng chan
> tIng 'amerI'qa'}? I'm probably just forgetting some rule that applies only
> to the compass directions.
>
>
> “America” by itself refers to the connected landmasses of both North and
> South America. North America is the north region of America, and South
> America is the south region of America. The alternatives you ask about
> would mean “America of the North” and “America of the South”.
>

In English, though, "America" often refers to just the USA, while the
connected land masses are "the Americas" plural. I guess that's not how the
Klingons learned it. (If there are Americas plural, then "America of the
North" would be a perfectly sensible way to render "North America".)

In Canada, there's a self-deprecating joke that Canada is actually "North
America" (i.e., just a northern part of the USA).

> I wonder how a Klingon would then render "the American South" (i.e., the
> southern United States, a geographic and cultural region to the south of
> the country)? Ditto "the American North".
>
>
> The name of the country is {SepjIjQa'}, so {SepjIjQa' tIng chan tIng}
> works the same way: the south region of the United States.
>

So how would North and South Dakota or Carolina work? (And if I wanted to
say "southern North Dakota" for some reason...?)

-- 
De'vID
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