[tlhIngan Hol] lightning lightning bolt and {pe'bIl}

[SuStel]

On 5/25/2021 10:32 AM, Will Martin wrote:
> Of course, we feel different about our word “weather” than we feel 
> about the term “atmosphere status”, but since Klingon doesn’t have a 
> word for “weather”, maybe they feel exactly the same about the phrase 
> {muD Dotlh} as we feel about our word “weather”.

If they do, then it's an idiom we can't recreate through pure analysis. 
We use the noun /weather/ in a couple of different senses: the 
collection of wind, water, visibility, and temperature in the atmosphere 
("The bad weather wrecked the boat"); the current state of the 
atmosphere due to all those factors ("The weather isn't looking good for 
flying today"); and the reporting on this state ("And now on to the 
weather"). Taken literally, the Klingon *muD Dotlh* is only the second 
of these: the state of the atmosphere due to the effects of wind, water, 
etc.

Now, one could say that Zeus is the god of the state of the atmosphere, 
and that wouldn't be inaccurate, but when one says Zeus is a god of the 
weather, I think one is really referring to the first of the senses I 
mentioned: he commands the wind, water, visibility, temperature, and so 
on in the sky. Those things aren't the *muD Dotlh,* though together they 
can change the *muD Dotlh.*

In other words, if my boat is being tossed about on the waves, it's not 
because the /status/ of the atmosphere is tossing it about; it's because 
the physical phenomena of wind and water in the sky are tossing it 
about. In English, we use the word /weather/ for both of these things; 
in Klingon, it appears to me that *muD Dotlh* is specifically the 
former, the status of the atmosphere, and we don't seem to have a single 
term to refer specifically to the collection of physical phenomena.

But because English uses the word /weather/ for both, it's easy for 
English speakers to confuse *muD Dotlh* with the physical phenomena.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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