[tlhIngan Hol] using {ngan} as a suffix {ngan} as the suffix {-ngan}

[De'vID]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2022 at 13:36, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:

> Perhaps this is a ridiculous question, but since {-ngan} isn't listed in
> the official klingon suffixes, then how are we able to write {'elaDya'ngan}
> unless we have the specific word {'elaDya'ngan} in Ca'Non?
>

Nobody has pointed this out, but the out-of-universe origin of {ngan} is
almost certainly that it is a good fit for the English ending "-ian" for
Trek alien names (Organian, Denebian, Cardassian, Ligonian, etc.) and also
happens to be the ending of {tlhIngan}. (One can theorise that {tlhIngan}
was originally a demonym for people from a place named {tlhIng}, a name
which survives in {tlhIng yoS}.)

Thus, the "people of" meaning probably came first, and the "inhabitant"
definition for the standalone {ngan} probably arose out of the necessity of
giving it *some* definition. I have no problem accepting {'elaDya'ngan} to
mean "Greek", in the same way that {DenIbngan} means "Denebian". For the
"inhabitant" meaning, I'd be more specific about the place: {tlhIng yoS
ngan} "an inhabitant of Klingon district", {tera' yuQ ngan} "an inhabitant
of planet Earth", {'elaDya' Sep ngan} "an inhabitant of the region/country
Greece".

-- 
De'vID
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