[tlhIngan Hol] grow and shrink

[Steven Boozer]

We also have the verb {Sach} "expand" :

(Lieven < MO, 12/02/2018):  {Sach} can be used as an adjective, yes.  Basically, {Sach} means to expand. If a person works on a book, or a device, and improves it, makes it better than before, then they {SachmoH} the thing.  The result is, as an example, a {paq Sach} "an expanded book." 
 
(Lieven, qepHom 2018):  ... can be used for:  be amplified, fleshed out, elaborated, increased in scope, etc.  Okrand later explained on the example of a book:  if you make an expanded version of it, then you {paq SachmoH}, "the book expands" {Sach paq} and you end up with a {paq Sach}, an "extended book". 

... {ghur} "increase" and {nup} "decrease" :

(De'vID, 3/22/2012):  [MO said that the verb {ghur}  is intransitive at 2011 qepHom'a']  "lugh {ghur vay'}, {vay' ghurmoHlu'}, {nup vay'}, {vay' nupmoHlu'} je 'e' maqbej MO.  {jIr} rur {DIng} maq je 'ach rurchu' 'e' maqchu'be'.  Sovchu'meH matlh'e' tlhobnISlaw'." 

(De'vID, 6/30/2015):  [At qepHom wa'maHDIch (2011) in Saarbrücken] "[Okrand] confirmed that the subjects of {ghur} and {nup} are increasing and decreasing, respectively." 

... as well as {Dej} "collapse" :

  Dejpu'bogh Hov rur qablIj 
  Your face looks like a collapsed star! (PK)

Voragh

----------------------------------------Original Message----------------------------------------
From: tlhIngan-Hol On Behalf Of Lieven L. Litaer

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the main character Alice keeps growing and shrinking back and forth. For the Klingon translation of the work, Marc Okrand provided some interesting and useful information on how to say "grow". As usual, the answer is not very straightforward and makes things quite complicated.

This text is printed in the book on page 234.
It is archived in the Wiki
http://klingon.wiki/En/Grow
and on qepHom.de
https://www.qephom.de/e/message_from_maltz_211104_grow.html

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The word for "grow" (increase in size) is {Qa}. But for animals or plants growing, that is, maturing (not just increasing in size), use {nenchoH}.

{QaHa'} would refer to getting smaller after the thing had previously grown bigger — that is, it's losing (in length or whatever) what it had gained. So if the balloon is losing air, you could say it {QaHa'}.
Presumably the object is going back towards it's original size (though it may not get that far or may become even smaller than it once was).

For "get smaller, shrink" (without the notion of having previously grown), use {qer}. Of course, depending on exactly what you want to say, you can also use {machchoH}.

The choice depends on whether you're focusing on just the shrinking or growing, on the one hand, or on the return to or towards the original size (or beyond!).

So if your main character started at their original size, and then shrank, that's {qer}. If they then started to grow, that would be {Qa} if the storyteller is just saying that they grew, but it would be {qerHa'} if the storyteller was saying that the shrinking was reversing.

If the de-shrinking continued so that the character ended up bigger than they originally were, that might be {qerHa'} and then — what a surprise! — {Qa}.

For Pinocchio, if you're saying that after his nose grew he started telling the truth and his nose got smaller, that's probably {QaHa'}. If you'd just met the long-nosed Pinocchio for the first time and didn't know the story of the nose but saw it get smaller, you'd probably say {qer}.

In short, you have four words to choose from, depending on what exactly you want to say: {qer}, {qerHa'}, {Qa}, {QaHa'}.

For "grow" as in "I grow flowers" or "she grows carrots," use {reS}. (Weird, right? Maltz wasn't sure if this revealed something about early Klingons' understanding of how plants grow or if it was just a coincidence.)

And for "grow" as in "grow a mustache," make use of {nargh}, as in {nargh lochwIj} "I'm growing a mustache." (To indicate that you're doing it on purpose, you could say {nargh lochwIj 'e' vIchaw'} "I'm letting my mustache grow" or something similar.)  
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Lieven L. Litaer