[tlhIngan Hol] Maus-words: News from Okrand

[Lieven L. Litaer]

TL;DR: one new word {valqe'} "bat (animal)"

Hello my friends,

today is the 50-anniversary of a German children sho named "Die Sendung
mit der Maus" (i.e. "the show with the mouse"). The topic of this
episode was a view into the future, so it was obvious to make a Klingon
introduction, of which I am very proud to provide it to them. You can
see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRgryUjxWes

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Not only the TV show, also the podcast version of the entire week needed
Klingon introductions, and those caused some problems which were
answered by Maltz as follows:

Quoted lines are my questions, lines starting with >>> are Okrand's words.

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 > leap year
 > - A year in which February has 29 days. 2020 was a "leap year".

 >>> Make use of the phrase {bur DIS}, as in, for example {qatlh bur 'op
DISmey?}

 > bat
 > - small animal that can fly but is not a bird, looks quite creepy and
 > can see in the dark due to his sonar voice; sleeps hanging upside
down, usually found in caves.

 >>> The closest Qo'noS equivalent is a flying beast called a {valqe'}.
You can decide whether you want to say {tera' valqe'} for purposes of
the TV show.

 > hibernate, overwinter
 > - what many animals do during the winter; a bear can hibernate. Also
 > the bats we talk above. They hide in caves and sleep there for a very
 > long time.  [Added information: with bats, and where they overwinter,
 > (so the word is more about "winter" than "sleep")]

 >>> Maltz didn't know of any special way to say "overwinter." He said
to just say something like {qaStaHvIS qImroq bIrqu', nuqDaq Qong
valqe'mey?} if that covers what they're driving at.

 > material
 > - There is the word {Hap} "matter" that appears in many materials
 > (e.g. {Sor Hap} "wood"), but can it be used as "material"? Can I say
 > {Hapmey} for "several materials"?

 >>> {Hap} (without {-mey}) should work.

 > the future
 > - When I say a phrase like "In the future, nobody will be poor", may I
 > add {-Daq} to {tuch}? {tuchDaq mamIp}?? Or must it be something like
 > {qaSDI' tuch}?

 >>> {qaSDI' tuch} should work.

 > Can I say {to'waQ wIyIv} for "chewing gum"?

 >>> There is an idiomatic expression {to'waQ yIv} that means to take
some time to consider a matter, but its meaning comes from the fact that
{to'waQ} takes a relatively long time to chew (before swallowing),
compared to other things you might be chewing, like muscle. It does not
follow from this that Klingons chew {to'waQ} for pleasure, just because
the flavor lingers longer or because it works off nervous energy.  Maybe
{req} would be better than {to'waQ} since, if you were to chew {req},
you'd probably be doing it just for the purpose of chewing (and whatever
pleasure or benefit that may bring in and of itself), unlike {to'waQ},
which you'd be chewing for the purpose of grinding it up so you could
finally swallow it.

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This will be archived at https://qephom.de/e/message_from_maltz.html



--
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.tlhInganHol.com
http://klingon.wiki/En/DieSendungMitDerMaus