[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: puq Hol

[Steven Boozer]

In English yes, but “catching a bug” means something quite different to Klingons:

   ghewmey SuqQo'
   Don't catch any bugs!  (ST6)

which is smuggler's code for "Good luck in avoiding border officials!" according to the ST6 novelization.
   ghewmey tISuqQo'
   Don't catch any bugs.  (TKW)

(TKW p.207):  “The Klingon guard at listening post Morska found this advice funny. Klingon humor is difficult to understand, so there is no ready explanation as to why he was so amused.”

And there’s this joke from Power Klingon:

   Qo'noSDaq paw cha' DIvI' beq.
   tlhIngan 'avwI' lughom.
   lutlhob «naDevvo' vaS'a'Daq majaHlaH'a'?»
   jang 'avwI' «lIchopbe'chugh ghewmey!»

   Two Federation crewmen arrive on Kronos.
   They meet a Klingon guard.
   They ask him, "Can we get to the Great Hall from here?"
   The guard answers, "If the bugs do not bite you!"
… which may mean being arrested by the “bugs” (police? security guards?).

Voragh

_______________________________________________________________________
From: tlhIngan-Hol On Behalf Of De'vID
On Sat, 22 Jan 2022 at 02:39, James Landau <savegraduation at yahoo.com<mailto:savegraduation at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2022 16:37:06 +0000
>From: Steven Boozer <sboozer at uchicago.edu<mailto:sboozer at uchicago.edu>>

>Klingon Word of the Day for Saturday, January 01, 2022
>
>tlhen         sound as, produce the sound of (v)
>  - (qep?a? 2021): Use with sound nouns, e.g., {bobDar tlhen} "(it) produces a splash sound?
>
>BTW did everyone catch the pun in the noun {bobDar} "splash"?  (I only did two weeks ago!)

All the HojnIypu' had the dancing bug . . . (I doubt a bug would be a *ghew* in that lyric . . . what could you call it?)

I think "to have/catch a bug" in this case is a metaphor for being infected with a disease, so I'd use {ngej} and {rop}. Something like {Hoch HojnIypu' ngejpu' mI'nISwI' rop}.
--
De'vID
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